Coincidence

HR was telling one of her running friends about her encounter with God, involving the mattress, the bookcase, and the truck.  This friend is supposedly a Christian, which at this point in HR’s journey, represents an authority; someone to be believed and trusted, someone who can offer confirmation.  What he told her was that all of those things were coincidence, all except the man walking out of the apartment right after she had prayed about it.  That was the one single act where God had moved.

If this friend is truly a Christian; which after that statement, I have my doubts; then he failed HR miserably.  None of that was coincidence.  It was the workings of a beautiful plan, set into motion before we even perceived it.  It was the checkmate in a complex game of chess, where the Almighty had been moving and positioning pieces into place with a strategy and a plan to where those pieces were going to be needed later.  God doesn’t just drop in every once in a while, He is always there, making moves.

Imagine for a moment that HR’s neighbor bought that truck ten years ago.  The neighbor had no idea when he bought that truck that he’d need it to help HR move.  And when all those opportunities came along when he thought to sell it, but he changed his mind, he never dreamed that he was hanging on to that truck to help HR.  He didn’t even know HR yet.  Neither one of them had even moved into that apartment complex yet.  But God knew.  He already knew that one day, ten years from now, HR was going to pray for help, and He was going to have the answer ready.  Her prayers were a delight to His ears.  He loved her so much that He wanted to reward her faith.  So, he set a plan into motion ten years before she needed it, with each move leading to the next, until it finally culminated into that precise moment when a list of seemingly random events finally all made sense.

That is not coincidence.  That is a deliberate act by an all-powerful God who can transcend time and space.  If you truly believe that God can only move in that single moment to bring that neighbor outside, then you are limiting His abilities.  I think HR’s running friend was in that moment an instrument of the devil.  I believe that he was repeating lies to HR; lies that he had heard from a sinister force bent on distorting miracles with the aim of inserting doubt and destroying belief.  I believe the devil is scared that HR is starting to believe that God exists, that He is listening, and that He cares about her.  He doesn’t want her to have a relationship with God, so he is trying to kill it before it can grow.  But have no doubt that God wants HR, and He will not give up without a fight.