As Christmas quickly approaches, we should realize all we have to be thankful for, in spite of the many difficulties we have all faced this year. This means we can also review our lives and think about the blessings we have received over our lifetime, even when we don’t understand exactly how they happened.
For example, I still think about when I first saw Cindy at college, she was talking with a good friend of hers who coincidentally was one of my roommates during our freshman year. I asked him about Cindy, and for some reason I was interested in her before I even met her….. he introduced us….. and the rest is history. Then Cindy and I think about the crazy way we arrived at the decision to come to Gainesville FL for my graduate school work….. which was supposed to last for 2 years….. and is now more than 50 years here for grad school, a lifelong career, and raising our family. Then we also think about the remarkable way we met Norm and Janie the minute we arrived at our apartment in Gainesville…. and they went on to become our best friends for the next 50 years, Norm being the brother I never had and Janie the sister Cindy never had, each family being the godparents of the others children, and celebrating so many Gator football games and holidays with them and other Gainesville friends over the years. Then there is the story about how Cindy and I arrived at Covenant Church, brought there by good friends Lon and Barb Kruger, with Barb telling me I wouldn’t like it there because the service was too informal for me…… that was over 25 years ago and Covenant reinvigorated my life for serving God after I felt so defeated at our previous church….. and all the lifelong friends we have made at Covenant as a bonus.
Cindy and I often talk about how “lucky” we were to have so many good “coincidences” happen to us during our life together. However, there is more to the story than luck.
There is a new word called Godwink. The online definition I found is:
Noun. God wink (plural God winks) An event or personal experience, often identified as coincidence, so astonishing that it is seen as a sign of divine intervention, especially when perceived as the answer to a prayer.
There is even a series of books written by New York Timesbestselling author SQuire Rushnell and his wife Louise DuArt, called The Godwink Series, describing life experiences that what some thought was a “coincidence” wasn’t coincidence at all, but a supernatural “hotline” from God.
For those of you that are familiar with the Hallmark movie channels, you may know that there is a series of Godwink movies that tell real life stories of people who generally have some hardship or a challenging love life, and the story of how they meet their soulmate in the process and they all live happily ever after. They then show the real life couples at the end of the show in their blessed real life worlds today.
Then there is the real life story of how Cindy introduced one of her best friends to her cousin at the right time, both had been widowed for about 7 years, and now have been happily married for 17 years. It would make a great Hallmark movie, because both their mothers knew each other well for many years and plotted with Cindy to make this happen, so their children would find love and happiness again…… and it worked at the right time.
Albert Einstein is credited with saying that Coincidence is God’s way of remaining anonymous.
I am not suggesting in this message that life is all sugar and spice and everything nice, because everyone has their many life challenges as well along their journey. What I am pointing out are our greatest memories as we look back at the life we have led, and how we wonder at how those events occurred, how “lucky” we were in the decisions “we made”. Even people who had a failed marriage often find their greatest life joy is the resulting children and grandchildren from that marriage, or a lost job leading to a career change that produced more success and happiness later in life, or a lost love of someone taken too early and realizing as Alfred Lord Tennyson said “’tisbetter to have loved and lost than never to have lovedat all”.
Even Job, with all the calamities that befell him in life, said of God:
Job 5:9 – He performs wonders that cannot be fathomed, miracles that cannot be counted.
We also find comfort to know:
Psalm 91:11 – For he will command his angels concerning you to guard you in all your ways.
Finally, we know of Him:
Isaiah 55:8-9 – “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,” declares the Lord. 9 “As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.”
And we also know:
Romans 8:28 – And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, whohave been called according to his purpose.
So take some time this holiday season to review the mosaic of your life and to sing as Tina and the Mighty Covenant Ensemble would sing – “Count your many blessings, Name them one by one, And it will surprise you, What the lord has done!!”
AMEN!