"Connecting the dots" used to refer to drawing or painting by the numbers. By connecting sequentially numbered dots one could produce a credible drawing using a limited amount of talent. Similarly, a picture could be painted by filling in areas that were color coded by number. Recently, however, "connecting the dots" has been expanded to refer to connecting certain pieces of evidence to reach a conclusion. Detectives use evidence from a crime scene to piece together what happened and who was involved in the crime by "connecting the dots." Recently, the 9-11 Commission has been formed to investigate the intelligence activity that existed before the attack on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. They have discovered that there was a lot of information on terrorist activity and plans, but no one suspected what was to happen. The question has been asked,"Why didn't someone connect the dots and prevent the tragedy"? There were a lot of dots, but the problem was that there were too many dots, and no one knew how to connect them. No clear picture emerged from "connecting the dots."
Man has always had trouble "connecting the dots." In the 1700's man connected the dots and concluded that the reason a substance burned was because it contained a mysterious, undetectable ingredient called "phlogiston," and this became known as the "phlogiston theory." Not until the discovery of oxygen by Lavoisier and Priestly was this theory abandoned. Similarly, man connected the dots and decided on a geocentric universe; he decided that the earth was flat; he decided that space was filled with the Ether; he decided that "nature abhors a vacuum;" he decided that atoms are indivisible; and most recently, that man is descended from apes.
The Bible also records how man has failed to connect the dots properly. Eve failed to connect the dots when she wandered into a forbidden part of the Garden, sat under a forbidden tree, and ate of its forbidden fruit. The antediluvians failed to connect the dots and perished in the great Flood. The children of Israel persistently failed to connect the dots and as a result they wandered in the wilderness for forty years. Judas failed to connect the dots and proceeded to betray his Lord.
Today, we are in danger of not "connecting the dots" properly. We disobey the laws of health, so we become obese, feeble, and ill. We disobey the law of love, and violence fills the land. We fail to heed the moral law, and murder, infidelity, and dishonesty are the result. We disregard the Lord's Sabbath day, and thereby dishonor the Creator. Connecting the wrong dots will lead us along the broad path that leads to destruction. So if we want to follow the narrow, upward path to salvation, we must take great care in "connecting the dots."
