What Is the Dot?

The story of The Dot.


My husband was teaching the youth group at our church a year or two ago, and he used an illustration that struck me.  Startled me, really.

At home, he asked me to locate some rope to use for his illustration.  We had a coil of clothesline in the basement, so I brought that up.  He grabbed a black Sharpie and prepared to head out the door.

"What are you doing with the rope and marker?"  I had to know.

It's for an illustration tonight.  I'll tell the teens to visualize this rope running along the walls of the youth room, and all the walls of the church.  Then it continues forever - there is no end.

Next, I'll have a volunteer come up and make one dot on the rope with the black marker.  This, I will explain, represents their entire time on earth.  The rope is eternity and that little black dot encompasses every moment we have here on earth.

Puts things into perspective, doesn't it?

I began to think of things I had worried about that day, and in the previous week, and realized those things weren't worth worrying about.  I thought about some things I had put off for far too long that were way more important - a phone call to my mom, a letter to a friend, a day at the park with our children, a date night with my husband.  I thought about how I'd hesitated in sharing my faith with certain people.  Why did I do that?  Time is short!

James 4:13-15  puts it well:  

Now listen, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money.” Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes.  Instead, you ought to say, “If it is the Lord’s will, we will live and do this or that.”

Psalm 90:4 shares God's perspective:

"A thousand years in your sight
    are like a day that has just gone by,
    or like a watch in the night."

We need to make our lives count!
We need to do what matters.

We need to glorify God in everything we do - He gave us this chance, He saved those who call on His name (Romans 10:9+10).

We need to be thankful for this gift of life...and LIVE IT UP!!!

Because, in the broad scope of eternity, our entire lives are a little black dot.

What are you going to do with yours?