How Coincidences Show God’s Love for a Suicidal Teen
To me, the following “coincidences” show us a glimpse of how God works.
This morning at about 9:50 AM, a friend in our women’s Bible study group asked us to pray fervently for a teen, let’s all him Paul, who goes to school with my friend’s daughter. Paul is a high school senior who was reported missing after he posted a suicide note on his Facebook page.
Nobody in our group of eight women knew him, but we were all moved with compassion and spent a good amount of time lifting him up in prayer before we started our study. I found out later that another mom in a different Bible study at our church also had her group pray for Paul this morning, as did countless other folks who saw his Facebook post.
When we finished praying, I was so moved by his story that I got teary eyed and was overcome with grief for this boy. I put my hand on my forehead and looked down at my lap hoping no one would notice that I was crying. It took about ten or fifteen minutes before I was able to be attentive in the group discussion.
After the study at about 12:35 PM, I was driving in my car listening to K-LOVE radio when the DJ (J.D. Chandler) read the verse of the day:
Proverbs 18:10
As the next song that played, I pulled into the parking spot of a strip mall. I was on my way to pick up sandwiches for me and my two high school boys who come home early on Thursdays. But instead of parking at the sandwich shop like I usually do every week, I decided to stop at a high end dollar store first to look for a notebook. I put the car in park and the song “Kings and Queens” by Audio Adrenaline started playing. It moved me to tears for Paul.
when we love the least of these…”
Even though I’d never met Paul, I knew God was calling me to pray for him because I was suddenly overcome with emotion. I immediately recognized this feeling… A couple of times in the past, God has given me deep compassion for people I’ve never met. This is what the spiritual gift of mercy looks like on me. So I sat in the driver’s seat, bowed my head, and pleaded to God to save and protect Paul wherever he was.
I can’t explain it, but during that song as I was deeply grieving for Paul, I started crying tears of joy. It felt like “It’s Not Over Yet” might be a message from God that Paul would be okay. I was hopeful, but wasn’t sure. When the song ended, I wiped my tears and walked into the dollar store to look for a notebook.
I thought about Paul again and about what a great Father God is to us; we can be facing the greatest darkness, but having the Lord Jesus in our hearts can make us feel like we have sunshine on a cloudy day.
Thirty minutes later, I’m home and I decide to do a Google search to see what more I can find out about Paul being missing. To my surprise, I see a tweet from the local police office stating,
(posted at 1:21 PM)
Coincidences? Or God at work?
Yes, these could be coincidences. That two women’s Bible study groups just happened to meet today and just happened to pray for Paul hours before he was found. That I just happened to hear that Bible verse about being safe and those two songs on KLOVE. And that I just happened to walk into the high end dollar store instead of going to the sandwich shop like I normally do week after week. And how I just happened to hear The Temptations song that made me think about this “cloudy day” turning to sunshine.
However, I choose to believe that these are not merely coincidences, but God’s way of intertwining us with each other in mysterious ways. How does God do this? I don’t know.
why He moved me to write this…
Because God the Father LOVES YOU, Paul, and wants to heal you!
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