Well, sometimes it may seem like that, but I’ll share two instances where God’s intervention can plainly be seen… if you have eyes to see and a willingness to accept what you understand what happened.
Before I met my husband, he had travelled interstate and needing a job, spent considerable time knocking on employer’s doors, qualifications and references in hand. It was the middle of summer, temperatures often above 40 degrees in Australia, and because being out in the sun always gave him a headache, he crossed the street, the shopfronts on the other side offering shade. He’d spent most of that day on foot, searching for specific addresses, traipsing all over the city from one location to another, but without even an interview to show for his efforts. About to head home, he noticed a government department entrance ahead of him, and with nothing to lose, made one last effort to garner some interest in what he had to offer. When the department head checked his paperwork, he pushed back his chair, threw his arms in the air and said, ‘my prayers have been answered…you’re going to Derby’… and promptly handed him a plane ticket!
Now, to most Aussies, going to Derby would not be a particularly joyful prospect! It is a humid, tropical place far up the coastline of Western Australia, given to torrential rain in the ‘wet season’ and baking heat in the ‘dry season.’ Add swarms of flies and clouds of mosquitoes, snakes, the odd crocodile and huge insects to the mix, it deters most from such an ‘adventure.’ But as my husband was not familiar with the terrain or location, he gratefully accepted the offer of work in the Kimberley and caught the plane days later.
So, where is all of this leading? Well, he was still there when I arrived to take up a teaching post the next year. We were married two years later and went on to have five beautiful children! Was I a Christian then? No. Was he? Yes! Coincidence? I don’t think so.