Greetings, My Friend!
Did you ever have one of those “just so happened” stories? Like you “just so happened” to be in the right place at the right time for something fabulous to happen? Listen, my children, and you shall hear the tale of God’s timing so loud and clear!
This is a story my friend Kit told me about an experience she had recently. Allow me to set the scene . . .
Kit and her husband, Gary, live in Clearwater Beach, Florida, but also have a home in Wisconsin. (Go Badgers! Go Packers! Go dairy products of all sorts!) They were up north at the time and had been babysitting their three young grandsons overnight. Kit & Gary’s daughter and her husband had been on an overnight getaway that seems to happen only when Grandma & Grandpa are around! The plan was to meet at Kit’s sister’s antique store the following day. The store was close to where Mom and Dad had their getaway, but was about a two-hour drive for Grandma & Grandpa . . . and three little boys! But grandparents will do just about anything for their grandkids, so off they went!
Halfway through the trip, the middle child, age 2, began screaming, crying, and holding his ear. He was saying, “Owie! Owie! Owie!” between wails. (Having had one ear infection in my life, I can totally relate to this.) I’m pretty sure I said and did the same things when I was so afflicted.
Kit & Gary didn’t know if they should continue or turn around and head home, but they decided to forge ahead as Mommy & Daddy were at the end of this journey, which made sense. Kit said she prayed the little guy would fall asleep—but to no avail. He continued to cry. Seems like God was otherwise occupied at the moment, right? Well, read on!
They arrived at Kit’s sister’s shop and went inside. And what to their wondering eyes should appear? Not a miniature sleigh and not eight tiny reindeer. (This would have been cute but totally not helpful.) But Kit’s cousin and his wife, who just so happened to make an hour and a half trip that day to go see Kit’s sister’s store. They just so happened to be there at the exact same time that Kit & Gary walked in with a wailing toddler who had a horrible earache. It just so happened that Kit’s cousin is a chiropractor! And he just so happened to be well-skilled in adjusting small children. Oh, and wait, it gets better!
Since antique stores rarely, if ever, contain chiropractic adjustment tables, there needed to be a place for this to occur. Well, it just so happened that a chiropractic office was in the same building as the antique store. Kit’s cousin inquired at that office if he could use the equipment there for a quick toddler adjustment, and they just so happened to say, “Of course!”
The little guy and his two brothers rode happily home with Mom and Dad, and the little patient slept the whole way home. Well, they did stop at an urgent care so a doctor could look in his little ears. Oh yes, it was a double ear infection, but the doctor and staff were amazed that he didn’t have a fever and was laughing and energetic. One antibiotic prescription later, and they were on their way home once again.
After the event, Kit wrote to her cousin and said, “Thanks to God for putting you where we needed you.”
I mean, what are the chances that Kit’s chiropractic cousin would decide that very day to go visit his cousin’s shop in the next state, an hour and a half away?
Sometimes, there are too many “just so happened”s, and you know God is choreographing the whole scene.
I once heard a pastor speak on the radio about the people in the church being the different parts of a body. He must have been talking about 1 Corinthians 12:12-27. You can read it here. He said that when we have an itch on one arm, God doesn’t usually make it disappear divinely. He sure could, but what is more likely to happen? Our brain tells our opposite hand to reach over and scratch the itch. He uses one body part to take care of the other.
And so it is with us. God could divinely fix things in the blink of an eye if He wanted. But so often, He uses one person to help another person out. What we may regard as “coincidence” may not be so.
I want to be more open to these “divine appointments.” I want to be ready and available for God to have me “in the right place at the right time.” No, I can’t give toddlers with earaches chiropractic adjustments, but I can do plenty of other stuff.
Have you ever had one of these “just so happened”s happen to you? I’d love to hear about it!
I’ll be skipping my note to you next week. Kevin and I are headed up to Wisconsin to enjoy some fall foliage. I’ll write again on November 7.
Until then, may God put you just where He needs you.
Written with love – – – Patti XOXO
“Blessed are those who give without remembering and take without forgetting.”
Elizabeth Bibesco
(Thanks, Diane)