God Winks

Have you ever thought about the ways things come together?  Sometimes, it happens just like magic. Everything is there and it all fits together perfectly.  Some people call these things coincidences. I heard someone call them "God Winks."  I like that because I'm not sure I believe in coincidence.

My son was going to make a mission trip to the Ukraine in 1994. His wife asked me why I didn't go along.  I had many reasons - had to work, no time off, and no extra money to pay for the airplane ticket.  Well, I got money back from the IRS, already had a passport. The money was enough that I could pay myself for not working for ten days or so. I jumped at the idea and made the trip with my son. It was an experience that changed my life forever. It was something I had never even dreamed possible. Being an asthmatic, going anywhere can be a challenge.  However, I know God's hand was in this because I had no trouble with my asthma while there.

When Don and I got married, we moved back to our little home town - it was a real change for me to go from living in a small city with over 100,000 people to moving "home" to a town with 1800 or 2,000 people.  Very big change.  We came back to visit family in Cedar Rapids and talked about looking at some homes for sale - just a few.  We called a realtor and she took us to see a number of places.  When we turned the corner off 34th St onto Terry Drive, Don saw the house and immediately fell in love with it. So we made an offer and bought the house and moved from our little home town back to Cedar Rapids.  It was no coincidence when Don saw the house. It was in God's plan for us.

I usually visited my oldest brother in Colorado over Easter when I could add a day on the beginning and one on the end to have some extra time there. I usually was able to take a couple personal days to do this.  Those personal days were taken away from us in 1994. So I worked several Saturdays to make up for the time I would be gone. I flew to Denver to spend Thanksgiving with brother Bill.
This visit was a gift to me because Bill passed less than a month later. It was no coincidence that I was able to visit him one last time.  This definitely qualifies as a God wink.

The way Don and I got together was certainly a God wink. A friend of mine wrote an article for the local newspaper about my son and me making the mission trip to the Ukraine.  Don's sister, my classmate and friend, saved the news paper for a period of time.  Don had moved back to our hometown. Several months later, his sister showed him the article. He read the article, sent me a Christmas card. December 24, I read a book titled "Merry Christmas, with Love" written by Sandy Patti and it moved me to call Don. That was the beginning of our love story.

At a class reunion in 1990, I turned to my friend sitting next to me and out of the blue, I asked her if she was happy. She blinked and then answered me. It was not a happy time in her life. We'd been friends for years and we became ever closer after that.

The next time something happens that seems coincidental, I challenge you to think long and hard about it.  Maybe you just experienced a God Wink!