Coincidence

We have all experienced events in life that appear seemingly random.  We have all found ourselves saying, “Wow. What a coincidence!” and then moved on in the busyness of our lives not thinking anything more of what appeared to be a totally fluke happenstance of circumstances. Life is sometimes an interesting puzzle.

My mother was at a jewelry counter in Florida when a woman approached her asking if she was the same person who had lived in Italy over 40 years ago.  As it turns out, they had been acquaintances as wives of Navy men stationed in that country in the late 1950’s.  What I find fascinating about this story is that I don’t even recognize my own face after forty years, and yet this person recognized my mother from a brief period in her life’s travels.  And so they said, “It’s a small world after all” and moved on. 

But what about the “coincidence” you ask for?  At one time during a period of deeply disappointing events in my life, I prayed for a sign. As I was looking out of my window one day, I asked for proof that the Lord was hearing my prayers. I asked for a tree in my backyard to be trimmed to allow more sunlight into my living room as a sign that God was in heaven and could hear my prayers.  It was really just a crazy, fleeting, and desperate thought. But the next day after work I decided to take a peek and……that very tree had been trimmed!  Crazy!  How did that happen??? I had asked for a sign to build my very weak faith and that random prayer was answered.  I still think of that experience often when sometimes feeling that my prayers never lift past the ceiling.

I know what you must be thinking.  Why didn’t I ask for world peace instead?  Something that would really matter.  But it did matter to my faith and yes, while it appeared to be an insignificant request, it was an answered prayer nonetheless at a time when I needed a level of proof.  My husband was sharing with a coworker the answers to prayer he was experiencing.  The coworker commented that the answered event would have probably happened anyway.  But how would we know, unless we prayed? Interestingly, the more I pray the more “coincidences” I experience.

This is the part where I would now reference what the Bible has to say and I will.  But first, I want to acknowledge that we all have events that happen outside of the norm.  Some of use choose to shrug our shoulders and move on, while others of us seek meaning from our circumstances.  I have always been someone to look behind the surface of life’s happenings in order to determine meaning as I choose to believe that life is not an endless series of random events.  I choose to believe that our life here and now is working toward teaching us in the ways of faith, leading us to the Truth of the Gospel, and to make us ready for what lies beyond this world.

I once had an experience at work where I was fired after making a seemingly innocent statement which was taken wrong and reported as offensive by the customer.  As I cried out for the Lord to fix the situation, I heard His still small voice say, “ I will work this out for your good”.  That statement is a direct reference to scripture:  “And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love Him, who have been called according to His purpose” (Romans 8:28). Unfortunately, my immediate response was to say that I didn’t see how this could be resolved.  Oh, where was my faith?  The very next week, that same customer made increasingly bizarre accusations regarding every other employee involved.  I felt immediately vindicated.  Coincidence?  I choose to believe in answered prayer. I choose to believe this was another life lesson to grow my faith in order to experience God working in my life.

So what does the Bible say?  The only reference to the word “coincidence” in the New Testament is translated as “what occurs together by God’s providential circumstances” (B. Beitman, MD in “If God is the Cause, There are No Coincidences”). Much of the Bible’s Old Testament was written in Hebrew and there is no word for coincidence in the Hebrew language.  Interesting. That would say to me that that God doesn’t believe in the concept.  The Bible is filled with scriptures which reference how our steps as believers are ordered by the Lord (Psalm 37:23), how every decision is from the Lord (Proverbs 16:33), and that God directs a man however He wills (Proverbs 21:1).  

There are multiple references in the Old Testament where the Lord directed the hearts of unbelievers in order to fulfill His purposes (Exodus 4:21, Ezra 1:1). Theses scriptures say to me that God directs our lives as believers and unbelievers.  We still have the choice to submit ourselves, accept the Lord’s guidance, and  believe in His Truth.  We still have the option of “free will”, as God wants to be freely chosen.  There is nowhere in life where a forced relationship would work and our relationship to God is no different.

According to Henry Blackaby in his book “Experiencing God”, we can know and understand God’s work in our lives through His Word (The Bible), through prayer, through our experiences and our circumstances.  We can also look for “patterns of evidence” in our lives and our world which point to divine intervention and purpose.  In “Mere Coincidence or Divine Truth” (Y. Russo, 2019),  the author cites multiple examples of patterns found in his study of Hebrew.  The Hebrew language is unique as each Hebrew letter equates to a number which allows for words to be assigned a numerical value.  In one such “coincidence” he found that each color word in Hebrew correlates to its own numerical value on the color spectrum. How could this kind of pattern be considered random?  There were so many of these “coincidences” that he wrote an entire book on the subject!

Proverbs speaks of God’s response to chance (or coincidence):  “The lot is cast into the lap, but every decision is from the Lord” (Proverbs 16:33). That gives me hope that God is directing my life and circumstances.  I pray that you also find comfort and hope in these words which indicates to me that God cares about the details of our lives and is always at work to direct us to His Truth.  Take time to reflect on your own experiences. I am sure you could think of multiple examples from your past which could now be recognized as God working in your life when viewed in retrospect.

Look back through the ages of history.  Our lives are fleeting and our ancestors have now been gone far longer than the time they spent on this earth.  I know this thought is slightly morbid, but what does this tell us about the importance of our current lives compared to our eternal lives?  Would this make you want to trust your own definition of life or seek Truth through the words of Scripture?  We must accept authority from some other source outside of our own opinions, as what we choose to believe cannot dictate Truth.

I believe that you have not happened upon these words by accident. We are living in “unprecedented” times. That is a comment I hear everywhere, even on secular news and radio. Even the most flippant person can see a change in our world and circumstances. We can now easily perceive how unseen forces can change our lifestyle, cause violence in our city centers, bring our economy to the brink of ruin, and place our lives at risk through simply living our daily routines. Many people are looking at our current events, are accurately interpreting the growing darkness, and are beginning to search for light. Jesus said in John 8:12, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life”.

Now is the time to “Seek the Lord while He may be found” and to “call upon Him while He is near” (Isaiah 55:6). Now is the time to accept His Truth by acknowledging that our sin separates us from God, by believing in the work of Jesus on the cross, by declaring with our mouths and believing in our hearts that Jesus is the Lord. Only then can we have hope in this current growing darkness!