No Coincidences

[Hey, according to the Blogger dashboard, someone was viewing my blog at 2:00 a.m.  Um, thanks, but GO TO BED!  My thoughts on thankfulness, however pithy or poignant, are not worth staying up all night.]

And now, today's thoughts...

I don't believe in coincidences.

I once sat behind the steering wheel at a red light with a Diet Coke in my hand.  I was anxious to go and was ready to accelerate as soon as the light turned green.  But at the last moment, just as the light changed, when I should have been rolling in to the intersection, I took a sip from the can.  As I sipped, a bus sped past me across the intersection into the lane where I was supposed to be.  That event, so many years ago, has stayed with me.

Thank you for Coca Cola.

Moments like this happen all the time.  Are you watching for them?  I remember one morning, grumbling about looking for my car keys when I needed to have left the house 5 minutes ago.  When I finally got on the road, I came upon a serious auto accident that happened just 5 minutes prior.  Have you ever had that that might've been me moment?

Thank you for lost keys.

Shut up.  The very thing you are complaining about may be quietly saving your life.  Slow down.  Being late for one thing may make you just in time for something wonderful.  "When the Lord closes a door, surely He opens a window" [is that from The Sound of Music, because I heard that in Julie Andrews' voice in my head].

Thank you for Julie Andrews, BTW.

Today was a good day.  Drew and I headed out for a hiking trail we've never tried.  But we got a much later start that we planned.  I was dressed for a much colder day than this turned out to be.  We took a different route on the way back to the car and ended up a mile downhill in the wrong direction.  Someone might complain about all this.  But I say the sun was higher in the sky for better light.  It's better to take off layers than not have enough of them.  That was an excellent uphill workout coming back.  

And it all came to this:  On the last half-mile of the trail, long after we'd planned to be driving back, we met Ellen and Stan Ferguson.  Stan is our former pastor, and Ellen and I hiked the entire Backbone Trail with Tandy and Sharon a couple years ago.  We haven't seen them in a while.  We drove past Stan's current church this morning, and Stan and Ellen were on my mind all along the trail.  And then there they were.

Thank you for running late, for wrong directions, for bumping into friends.  Thank you for no accidents.