Coincidence?

It's lunch time in the office! And because I'm too broke to venture out everyday to eat my lunch, I bring my own food and while away the lunch hour in the office. Since I have the hour free, I always try to spend this hour with Him! Just sitting outside on the bench with the wind blowing on my face alone, not thinking about anything. I think I'm learning how to sit quietly at the feet of Jesus, like Mary. :)

I used to think that life was one big coincidence. That is the HUMAN mentality! Meeting some people certainly weren't coincidences. Living so near Trina and meeting her definitely isn't a coincidence. She was God-sent to be my confidante, my pillar of strength, my listening ear... my best friend. If she weren't living so near to me, we wouldn't be meeting up so often and wouldn't be so close as a result. She was also the one who taught me that there's more to the Catholic faith than just Sunday mass and catechism classes. When I met her in Sec 1, she was in the Legion of Mary. And her deep faith and intimate relationship with God truly inspired me and made me want to know more about Him. It was no coincidence meeting her I feel, cos if I hadn't met her then, I wouldn't have had the yearning to want to know Him better. Now, I believe that God had sent her along my way to sow the seeds of faith in me. It makes me smile now to think that God had a plan for me all along. Trina's continual presence in my life is testament to that.

Again, I relate another incident that I would have attributed to coincidence before but now believe that is part of His bigger plan for me. A couple of weeks ago, I was suddenly filled with the desire to read the Bible, to deepen my knowledge of Scripture. So I began by picking up my Bible every night for about half an hour before going to bed. For the strangest of reasons, I started with the Book of Daniel. I wasn't thinking about why I wanted to start with that book, I just picked up the Bible and my hands automatically flipped to Daniel. So without much further thought, I read the book in 2 nights and moved on to Corinthians. A few nights later, when I met the rhinos at NUS to just eat and talk, Wilfred and Clement asked me if I was interested in joining them for some Bible study classes about the Book of Revelation. I thought why not, since I was already wanting to read more of the Bible at that time. When I went for the first class last Thursday night, I found out that the Book of Daniel is of a similar kind to the Book of Revelations, in that both are apocalytic literature. When I heard it, I remembered that I had recently read Daniel on what seemed like a complete whim. And now looking back, I know that it must have been the hand of Jesus that held my hand as it picked up the Bible that night to begin my faith journey. It was His hand that guided mine to turn the pages to Daniel so that I would be more familiar with the apocalyptic form of literature that Revelation is.

Mere coincidence? I think not! It's nice to know that I'm not alone in this world. It's nice to know that God has planned what He wants to do with me. And I reiterate: How great is our God!


*kel