Discover a Wondrous Masterpiece When You Connect the Dots
Do you remember dot-to-dot pictures? You started at the dot labeled number one and drew a line to the dot labeled number two. Then you connected dot two to dot number three, then four and so on. When you finished connecting the dots, you had a completed drawing! The bonus step was to pull out your crayons and color it in so that your picture was a masterpiece.
As we got older the number of dots increased and the pictures became more complicated. I have discovered there are places online where you can find dot-to-dot pictures complicated enough to keep adults interested and involved.
Sometimes reading scripture is like doing a dot-to-dot for me. I read a verse and wonder about this or that. So, I read the passage in different translations, I look up cross-references, and/or I research the definition of Greek or Hebrew words. I let one point lead me to another and then another and then another.
“Going dot-to-dot” brings about fresh awareness and understanding.
Connecting Dots in Scripture
I want to create a new masterpiece for us today.
“As they were eating, Jesus took some bread and blessed it. Then he broke it in pieces and gave it to the disciples, saying, ‘Take this and eat it, for this is my body.’”
Matthew 26:26
Matthew 26:26 is a familiar verse. It’s often read before we participate in communion. Now this is where it gets fun. When I cross-referenced this verse, the notes in my Bible sent me to Matthew 14:19
“Then he told the people to sit down on the grass. Jesus took the five loaves and two fish, looked up toward heaven, and blessed them. Then, breaking the loaves into pieces, he gave the bread to the disciples, who distributed it to the people.”
Matthew 14:19
On the night of Passover (Matthew 26:26), Jesus did the same process as when he fed the five thousand on a hillside with a boy’s small lunch (Matthew 14:19). I noticed three similarities in the two stories.
Three Fresh Images
Connecting the Dots of God’s Blessing
First, in both stories, Jesus blessed the bread before He offered it to others. I love that. I am drawn to Jesus and know I can trust Him because He seeks God’s blessing first and foremost. Jesus’ focus was on God the Father and seeking what God would want to do.
Jesus sets an example for us that we offer what we have to God first before ever offering it anywhere else. We must seek to know God’s blessing on what we are preparing so that we continually recognize it’s all about God and His honor, only for His glory.
Connecting the Dots of What Jesus Gives
Second, Jesus offered what He held in His hand; what God had blessed. It’s wondrous to think Jesus offers me what He has asked God to bless. Think of all Christ gives us: forgiveness, eternal life, love, peace, hope, strength, companionship, understanding, wisdom. . . the list is endless.
And everything Christ gives God Almighty has blessed. Jesus doesn’t give randomly; He gives intentionally and with profound purpose. He gives us what God has blessed so that it will bless us and provide us abundant life in Him.
Connecting the Dots of What We Receive
Third, Jesus offered sustenance and life. For the people on the hillside, Jesus gave their physical bodies much needed food. For the disciples, Jesus offered what they didn’t yet know their spiritual life needed.
Isn’t that just like Jesus? He provides the things we can identify we need; and He provides what we are unaware is necessary. Too often asking for the tangibles distracts and consumes us when Jesus is already offering Himself as our sustenance and life.
A Bonus Connection
In Matthew 14, what Jesus offered was miraculous and full of wonder. In Matthew 26, I imagine the disciples found Jesus’ offering unusual and confusing. There is truth found in the difference.
What Jesus offers doesn’t always look like what we imagine. The dots I’m connecting tell me that Jesus still offers what is best for us to live. What He waits to give to us is still miraculous and full of wonder.
A New Masterpiece to Consider
We must remember what connecting the dots has revealed.
- Regardless of what Jesus gives, whether it be challenging or exciting, difficult or easy, mundane or unusual, He has offered it to God first for His blessing. Christ continues to focus on honoring God and giving Him glory. We are to live in the same manner.
- Jesus gives freely and with intention, revealing His heart of love for us. We can trust what He gives because God has blessed it and it is for our good.
- Jesus gives not only what will sustain us, but also what we really need to live the abundant life He created us to live.
Your life might be full of pain and hard circumstances right now. Perhaps you are living on the precipice of something wildly exciting that fulfills one of your dreams. Your days could be filled with the most mundane tasks of the most ordinary life. The dots still connect the same; Jesus is offering you what you need.
“You will show me the way of life, granting me the joy of your presence and the pleasures of living with you forever.”
Psalm 16:11
Jesus feeding the 5,000 Dot to Dot picture from kidadl.com
Nancy, I love your discovery in connecting the dots here! Fully yielded, blessed for His purpose, and the provision of His blessings to us are glorious gifts from above. Ps. 16:11 is a special scripture promise God gave me 30 years ago, when we were counting down to the due date of our first baby. ❤️ Thanks for reminding me!