Monday, October 27, 2008

I Don’t Believe in Coincidences

One week ago, my husband Adrian and I were given the sad news that his cousin Paul was murdered. This is a double tragedy as just six weeks ago, we buried Adrian’s Uncle Vivian, Paul’s father. But it wasn’t until yesterday that I realized the bigger significance of this.

Adrian’s uncle died peacefully at the age of 77. But as sad as it was to lose him, thanks to his passing, some 100-plus family members and friends all got to say good bye to Paul — an opportunity we would never have had if Vivian had not died first.

Since we got the news, the thing that has been running through my mind on a continuous loop is seeing Paul — at the head of his father’s casket. Sitting in front of us at the funeral in church. Sitting on his sister’s porch, with his arm around Adrian and Adrian’s arm draped around him, big smiles on their faces as I snapped their photos. And then the after party, where he sat next to me and my mother-in-law for a half an hour and had a long wonderful talk with us. So close I could reach out and touch him. We would not have had these beautiful quality moments if not for Vivian.

And then it hit me. I don’t believe in coincidences. Could God have planned it this way? Well of course he did! It’s no accident that we got to say good bye to Paul. God knew that Paul would be entering his kingdom and he gifted us with these last precious moments. Of course, none of us knew at the time that we were saying good bye to Paul.

And, remember the horrible American Airlines luggage experience I wrote about in a previous blog post? Well it resulted in us receiving a $400 voucher, which my husband used to make the trip to Paul’s funeral. Was that a coincidence? Did God intentionally put in our path such a horrendous travel experience that it would be guaranteed to cause me to write a three-page letter to the chairman, president and CEO of American Airlines? If we had only had a slightly annoying experience, I would have never written the letter and we would have never gotten the voucher. Was all of that part of God’s plan?

As I said, I don’t believe in coincidences. I won’t say that “everything” happens for a reason — but I believe about 90% of it does. This entire experience, I have no doubt, was all connected in one single thread.

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