THE Most Prodigious Punctuator!

At 11, my sister could have been called a "prodigious punctuator"...although her specialty was commas.  She sprinkled all her writings quite lavishly with commas.  It's the first thing I think of when I see this old picture.

I had just graduated from high school, having recently turned 17, and worked for a year home-schooling (in Santo Domingo).  My sister Carol was my 6th-grade student.  (I had a 7th, and two 1sts.)  As her teacher, I was the one who corrected her homework, and was treated to the sight of all her beloved commas.  (Funny...I can't remember anything about the REST of her punctuation!)
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Can we draw an analogy from "punctuation" in our lives?  Yes...at least I think so!  There are two main applications to think about. (The first can seem a challenging responsibility, the second is an exciting and mind-boggling reality!)

 1) As believers, we are called to be careful how our words come across. Speaking like a metronome, with no pauses or expression, isn't very interesting, is it? The same is true of how our words and lives speak to others.  Are they interesting, well-timed, and "punctuated" positively?

"Let your conversation be always full of grace, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how to answer everyone."  (Colossians 4:6)

"Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen."  (Ephesians 4:29)

Jesus used different things to "punctuate" His messages and ministry; for example, parables and miracles. And the disciples,  following in His footsteps and obeying His commission, "... went out and preached everywhere, and the Lord worked with them, and confirmed His Word by the signs that accompanied it."  (Mark 16:30)   We "punctuate" with our actions, too, not only our words and attitudes. 
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2)  This second facet is the most awesome and glorious.  God is THE "prodigious punctuator" extraordinaire!  He writes on our hearts: "I will put my laws in their minds and write them on their hearts.  I will be their God, and they will be my people."  (quoted in Hebrews 8:10)

Even more incredibly,  it is He who writes your story and mine! When God writes your story, planning all its details, He knows exactly where to put each "comma", each "period", each "semi-colon", each "colon", each "exclamation mark"...even each "question mark"!  He knows when you need a brief pause, when you need to stop, where you need to make a slightly longer pause before continuing, where you need to take stock of  things, where you need to be amazed by Him in a special way in order to be encouraged, when you need to wonder about things...

God writes our stories from His unique, omniscient viewpoint, using His unsurpassed wisdom, crafting a story that is lavish in its use of "divine punctuation" and unparalleled creativity!  The stories reflect His immense love.  No one could ever hope to write his/her story better than the way He writes it.  (We act as though we could sometimes, don't we?  Or we try to "correct" His punctuation, arguing about where He has placed the starts and stops and pauses!)
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"For you created my inmost being; You knit me together in my mother's womb.  I praise You because I am fearfully and wonderfully made..."  (Psalm 139:13-14)

"All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be."  (Psalm 139:16)
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Let's be thankful that our Creator is such an unimaginably clever Wordsmith, writing our stories with such skill, and punctuating them with such love, precision and assurance!