12092016 God Winks
You guys! Have you ever had something happen to you that you needed to share? Yeah!!! That happened to me this morning!!!
It’s bitter cold here on the farm, the kind of cold that makes you never want to leave your bed; but life beckons you from slumber and you must venture out into the world to deliver children to school so that you can shop peaceably in the supermarket with lists in your hand that doesn’t get wrinkled and crinkled from children fighting over shopping carts and driving privileges. That’s cold.
After dropping the kids off, I stopped to grab the water cooler jugs and sat down in my chair, “for a minute”. As I sat there in an effort to procrastinate until at least spring, I flipped through Instagram. I saw one of the students who watched my kids in the nursery at church under a big blue tree in Florida. She was with her sorority sisters and as I glanced closely at the picture, I noticed another one of the young ladies I’d known for a while. Both under the same tree, in the same picture. I looked at the name of the owner of the picture… it was not the first young lady I had seen, it was the second! I was immediately screaming inside my head, “It’s my girls!! They are in the same sorority!!!”
I typed the comment under the photo and then sent this text to their mothers:
“God wink this morning – two young women from different parts of the country went to college and joined a sorority. They had their picture taken together by a Christmas tree and posted it on Insta. One “old” lady was looking at the picture and noticed that both young women had been in her life at different times. R from 99 and K from 09. That “old” woman met a lady named, L 17 years ago and a lady named D 7 years ago. Their daughters are now in a sorority together!! Who, but God designs our lives? Who, but God places people in our paths at exactly the perfect time? Who, but God, could orchestrate such a beautiful moment? I am grateful for you, and your beautiful daughter!”
Now just let that sit a moment...
Here’s what had to happen in order for that Christmas tree picture to be so amazing:
Beef had to join the Navy, decide to marry me. I had to say yes. We had to get married and move to Tennessee, where Beef had to pass A school. Beef had to be transferred to VF-103 in Oceana, VA, and go on a 6-month deployment. I had to work at the Azalea Inn, where I learned that booze and people would not cure the loneliness while Beef was away on cruise. I had to go through counseling to hear God call me back to Himself. I had to be driving down Little Creek Boulevard one day and see the church under the underpass and decide that’s where I would go to worship. I had to attend worship. The preacher had to give a sermon on The 99 for 1 Sheep story. I had to recognize the Lord’s call back to Him, answer and obey that call. Beef had to be transferred to Strike at Pax River, Maryland. I had to research churches before leaving Virginia. LPUMC had to have a Secretary named S, who had to answer my email, and search for me when I visited the church on our house hunting leave. I had to decide that LPUMC would be my church. We had to move to Pax River, and I had to attend LPUMC alone. L had to be attending LPUMC at exactly the same service on the same day. Her dad had to be visiting that day, and we had to have a conversation about Iowa. L and I had to become friends. (She had to have married her husband, had a child named R and they had to have moved to Pax River too.). God had to place a call for student ministry on my life. We had to stay friends even when we transferred to Florida without them. We had to remain friends and find each other again when they finally were transferred to Florida. We had to keep in touch for over 17 years. Beef and I had to get pregnant and have two miracle babies. We had to leave the Navy and move back home – a place I vowed to NEVER return to – to raise our babies. I had to take a job at WUMC as the Youth and Christian Education Minister, not a vocation I had ever even considered. I had to meet D and K through the church. (D had to mary her husband and have K, and become a member of WUMC and become a Sunday School teacher and K had to grow up and decide to work in the nursery) D was Line’s Sunday School teacher and K kept Fritz in the nursery. I had to maintain a relationship with D and K and L and R through the next 7 years. K had to graduate high school and choose a college in Florida. I had to find and follow K on Insta. R had to graduate from high school and choose a college. I had to follow R on Insta. They both had to pledge into their sorority. They had to have adventures that led them to that tree and take that picture. I had to be sitting in my chair procrastinating and avoiding the cold weather in order to flip through Insta to see that picture and be able to comment on it.
Now, think about that for a minute… because 17 years is a very long time.
17 years ago, a chance encounter led to this moment? Could that be true? If you subscribe to the theory of chance, which I do not. 17 years ago, God knew that this very thing would happen. I promise you He did.
When you look at all the people in this world, when you think about the results, had even one of those events not occurred – that picture would be an insignificant photo on Instagram. Nothing can explain this. Nothing but God.
This God wink – it is confirmation that we are all in the exact place we are supposed to be at any given moment, and while we may not think about it then, if we look back, we can usually see God’s presence, God’s direction, God’s leading, God’s divine purpose.
It wasn’t kismet, fate, serendipity or chance that put me in those places to meet L or D or R or K. It was God, plain and simple. This God wink is proof to me that He exists, and He has a plan for every one of us. He has an amazing way about Him that we cannot comprehend and will never be able to fathom.
Incredible. That’s God.
Momma Rich's 