I have a grandson who likes to draw/play dot to dot pictures. He also happens to be pretty good at it (What, you expected his granddad to say something less?). He’s so good, in fact, that when he’s finished filling in someone else’s dot to dot, he makes up his own. Or, if that bores him, he’ll design his own maze that he then wants one of his grandparents to figure out. I avoid any embarrassing traps like this by pointing him in his grandmom’s direction. I find it easier to tickle and wrestle with the grandkids than to try and match wits with them. On the other hand, I do look forward to the day when I can teach each one of them the Greek and Hebrew alphabets. You never know when they might need it in a Sunday School class. But, I digress… Dot to dots are as fascinating as the one who creates them. They can spell out a name, put together a picture, or help you learn the importance of counting successive numbers. In a similar manner, I think that our Heavenly Father has done something similar for us. Granted, our lives aren’t drawn out like a two dimensional character on a piece paper. But, from the time we are conceived until the time that our toes take on a rigid permanently vertical position, we do move through life from one “dot” to another. Only, in the dimension of our lives, they are more like the stone markers that the ancient Israelites used to use to mark their progress or significant events. We go from birth to toddler to elementary school to graduation. After that we take variant yet similar paths from more education to jobs to marriage to family. Interspersed are things like accidents, moving, deaths in our family or among our friends, promotions, additional births and (if you’re a child of God) the need for selecting a church home. This latter “dot” becomes a little more engaging depending, again, on a variety of factors. How many churches are there from which to make your choice? How important is doctrine and the preaching of God’s word? Does the music/worship portion of the service mean more (or less) to you than the sermon? How effectively does the church minister to your needs, those of your children and your marriage? Is the church outreach oriented? Do they place a high priority on discipleship? And so the list and/or “dots” could go. Recently I stopped to speak with one of our more recent attendees at CBC. I expressed appreciation for his being with us and told him we joined him in praying for God’s direction as he sought for a church home for his family. I will never forget his response. He said, “Pastor, this is not a competition. We simply want to know the will of God in the matter and stay there.” So much for the dots…