Connections are essential!

Remember "connecting the numbers" as a child?  We would be presented with a design with numbers that resembled something, but we could not quite see it. We had to trace the numbers in order to really understand it. Then we would color it in and really experience it. 

Life and relationships are the same way. We pass by people daily and see a shadow many times. We even ask "What's up?", or "How 'ya doin'?", but before anyone answers we have already passed each other by. 

Connections are essential! 

Look at the drawing below. What do you see? A faint image right? One that requires a deeper focus to really see or understand. It requires time and investment. It requires connection. 

Walk in wisdom toward those who are outside, redeeming the time. Let your speech always be with grace, seasoned with salt, that you may know how you ought to answer each one. (Colossians 4:5-6)

My wife reminds me daily of the importance of connection, but it took someone else to show it for it to really set in . . . by the way, is that not what we husbands do? We need someone else to say what our wives have been saying all along? Ok, back to my point . . .

I so appreciate a co-worker who the other day took valuable time out of his day to connect with my wife and me. He wanted to know all about us. Not just a simple fist bump, high five or even a casual hand slap or hug, but a real desire to connect! WOW!!!!

In our relationships with Christ, family, co-workers, even the young people we encounter, are we deliberately making time to connect? If we connect the numbers to the drawing we will get a deeper meaning and perhaps begin to imagine what Paul may have experienced when Jesus confronted him. We get to know Paul a bit as we connect!

So some application: 

Will we sacrifice our agenda for the chance to get to really invest in another's life?

In life . . . especially in the CHRISTian life . . . connections are essential!