My grandma taught me how to play dominoes, the basic kind where each player tries to make the dots on all the “end” domino-halves add up to a multiple of 5, when I was about 4 years old. Since then, I’ve learned several other domino games, and I enjoy playing every single one.
One thing I’ve never enjoyed doing with dominoes, though, is building winding patterns of dominoes set on end before toppling one domino to cause the remaining ones to fall, one after another.
The domino effect.
The domino effect occurs quite often even without dominoes. I start what promises to be a simple task, and before I know it, I’ve got five more that need to be done.It happened to me yesterday. I was searching for just the right Scripture to have embroidered on a gift for my new grandson (and yes, he is absolutely adorable!). I went through my Bible, looking at verses I’d hi-lited or annotated, and I searched on line using a few Bible apps and google. The perfect verse eluded me.
Something told me I’d find just what I was looking for in one of my books.
And the first domino fell.
I pulled from the bookshelf any book that I thought might contain what I was searching for. As I did, I was somewhat embarrassed at how many books I own that I haven’t yet read.
I decided that after I found the perfect verse for my grandson’s gift, I’d pull from the shelves every single unread book, put them all in a pretty basket by my bed, and then read them all before the end of 2020.
But first, I needed to find a Scripture, and I did.
That done, I went to the storage area of the basement and found that basket I knew would hold look so cute underneath the cute little piano bench next to my bed.
More dominoes tumbled over.
By the time I was finished, I’d . . .
pulled the unread books from the shelf
moved a couple of large bins of things I really need to sort to the front of the basement (so I don’t
forget) while searching for the basket
found the basket I had in mind
discovered the basket wasn’t nearly big enough, but that it’s the perfect size to hold
magazines under the coffee table
gathered the magazines from the bottom of the bookshelf and put them in the basket
rearranged the books I have read to create a shelf (or two or three) to hold the
unread books
I always thought that lining up dominoes just to knock them over again served no real purpose and was just a waste of time. But in life, the domino effect can bring some pleasant surprises.
A simple search for the perfect Scripture led me to some nearly-forgotten treasures to be read.
Who knows how many more dominoes will fall as a result!
