Rays of Hope ~ Tim Stockton
Have you ever been somewhere and later realized that you being in that spot at that moment in time was exactly where you needed to be? Some people would say when things like that happen it is just a coincidence. A definition of a coincidence is “a remarkable concurrence of events or circumstances without apparent causal connection”, or a simpler way to say it is a “situation in which things happen at the same time without planning for it.”
We recently drove 3 hours to go to a Tim Hawkins, “Christian Comedian” concert. As we were standing in the line to go in we had to wait about another 20 minutes before the doors opened. There was a lady just a few feet behind me who was talking to some other people in line, but being that close I could hear their conversation. I don’t know who the lady is or where she is from. If I was to see her again I can’t promise I would even know it was her. As she talked about things God had been revealing to her about her own life it was very interesting ways that I needed to be reminded of.
I’m sure this lady never thought that what she was sharing with some friends in line at a concert would end up being overheard by me and used not only in a message at church, in a few different counseling sessions, in my column for the Wayne Weekly and now on this blog. We may never know what we share will impact others.
The lady shared about how she knew that God could prevent things from happening. However, because of free will He will prepare us for what may come about through other’s free will choices. She didn’t go into great detail of what bad experience she had gone through but explained in hindsight she can see where God had been preparing her for what would happen.
She had attempted to rationalize and explain away how she was being treated thinking, “this (person) would never be like that or treat me this way.” Those could have been attempts to “prevent” even worse from happening, but her not heeding that God still prepared her for it.
What I learned through eavesdropping was that even when God may not prevent a bad thing from happening He will prepare us to walk through it and gain greater faith because of it. Maybe I needed to be there in that line 3 hours away from home to overhear encouraging words from a stranger who wasn’t even talking to me. It is also encouraging to know when we share what God is doing for us we can spread the faith without even realizing we are.
Originally written 8/28/22
Rays of Hope 