Join the Dots to see the Bigger Picture!

Join the Dots to see the Bigger Picture!

Join-the-dots books used to be given to children for amusement on a rainy day.  Nowadays much more difficult and complex versions for adults are available, and are recommended for the creation of a sense of order in times of stress. 

Gradually, as we use a pencil to join the numbered dots, we begin to see that each one is part of a bigger, recognisable picture.  In the same way, we can look back on surprising coincidences which we have experienced and realise that each - though apparently insignificant at the time - was part of our slow awareness that "there is more to life than meets the eye".

There are different kinds of memorable coincidences.  For example:

 The right place at the right time; 

Just then the post man arrived;

 I had just been thinking of that friend when... ;  

  I switched on the television and was amazed to see..

We can think of these as being like different coloured beads threaded together in a bright necklace.  

But what is it that threads them together?

When I told my friend Helen (a Church of Scotland minister) that sometimes I felt overwhelmed by the appropriateness of a “coincidence” and couldn’t help wondering uneasily how it had come about, she wrote me a very helpful letter.

First she referred to Psalm 139, in which the Psalmist says: 

 ‘Thou hast discerned my thoughts from afar.  Thou hast traced my journey and my resting places, and art familiar with all my paths.’  

Then she wrote:  ‘I think the area we are talking about is what you might call the mechanics of ‘comforting coincidences’ or other coincidences, promptings, directions, voices, etc. that lead us to places, people, thoughts which are helpful to ourselves or others and for which no other explanation can be found.

‘For me, I would always simply say that these coincidences/promptings etc. are indeed the Holy Spirit in action.  He is God’s “follow-through” in our lives, and that follow-through includes absolutely everything, from teaching, inspiring, directing, healing, comforting - in whatever way is meaningful and effective.  I find that last part to be extremely special, since God knows each of us completely and loves us very particularly, and therefore, in ways that many times take our breath away, communicates with us and through us in our own spiritual, emotional, intellectual, circumstantial idiolect. (This means our own personal language, the speech habits specific to an individual).

‘I can understand when you say “I don’t know how” or when you sense that you have been directed by “whatever it was”, because these things are a mystery to us in their outworking.  I would attribute such directing to the work of the Holy Spirit – although it is interesting how many times people use the passive voice – “I was led” etc. to avoid actually attributing the leading directly to the Spirit.’

How grateful I am to Helen for sharing this insight with me!  It is true that people hesitate to refer directly to the Holy Spirit, perhaps because they are instinctively wary of the word ’spirit’ or simply because they fear being regarded as “too religious”! 

But we do need to ask God for the gift of discernment, in order to avoid being open to spiritual influences of a non-holy nature, which can feel alarming - even threatening.

My friend Margaret once said, “Kathleen, you are like me – aware of the unseen spiritual dimension beyond everyday appearances.  You need to protect yourself by saying the Lord’s Prayer every morning and every night.”  So every day I repeat the words that Jesus taught us, concentrating especially on “Thy will be done on earth; deliver us from evil; Thine is the kingdom the power and the glory.”  In addition I use an encouraging book of daily readings, where readers have contributed Bible passages which have affected their lives.

In this secular age many people would say dismissively, “Oh, coincidences happen to everyone now and again. So what?”  My reply would be “Note them down, ponder over them, thank God for them, then ask for the ability to “join the dots!” That is, to become aware that certain incidents, past and present, form part of a “bigger picture.”

'To crown all, there must be love, to bind all together and complete the whole.'  

(Paul's letter to the Colossians, 3 v 14)