Whether you call it Coincidence, Chance, Karma, Fate or God at work, things happen. I don’t always see it, or understand it, or even like it, but when certain things happen, I find myself saying, “OK, God, you know what you’re doing.”
Let me share an example of what I mean. My husband recently had major surgery and is more than anxious to get back to work. He was to see his doctor this morning and had hoped for a release to work. But the office called yesterday and left a message that his appointment had been rescheduled.
I didn’t learn of the message until too late to call back, so I had all evening to listen to him gripe and to stew myself. “God,” I prayed silently after venting to some friends, “can’t you please do something to speed up the process? Before we both go crazy?”
This morning, when I called the office, I learned that he was supposed to see his surgeon — not his doctor. The hospital had given us the wrong instructions. A few more phone calls and he was scheduled to see the surgeon in a couple days. I took a deep breath and readied myself for the day, switching laundry in to replace the trip to town.
The phone rang. It was my next-door neighbor’s wife calling, and she was in full panic mode. Her husband, who has a history of intestinal blockage, was on the floor of his trailer and couldn’t get up. (Meanwhile, she’s in another state nine hours away.) Could I call 911 and go over there? I grabbed my husband and went over. I was dialing 911 on the way and was connected when we got there, so relayed his symptoms.
“How long has he been vomiting?” the dispatcher wanted to know. Knowing what time he usually gets up, he had to have been sitting there at least four hours! A few more questions, but the EMTs were on the way. They gathered him up and headed to the hospital. I called his wife to update her on the hospital and calm her down — she kept fielding phone calls instead of getting on the road — and finally hung up.
Something was bugging me, and I checked my call log. Sure enough, my friend’s first call came at the time we would have been on the road to the doctor. I sat down with my husband and looked over at him.
“Now we know why the appointment was canceled.” He grunted in reply but didn’t contradict me.
Often I’m oblivious, mired in my own messy life, but sometimes events hit me over the head, like today, and I realize that I have seen the hand of God.
Isaiah 55:8-9 says it well:
“For my thoughts are not your thoughts,
neither are your ways my ways,”
declares the LORD.
“For as the heavens are higher than the earth,
so are my ways higher than your ways
and my thoughts than your thoughts.” (NIV)