In literature, authors provide clues and hints to their readers that will help foretell future events in the plot of a story. This is called foreshadowing. It sounds more ominous and gloomy than it is actually.
Who's seen Titanic? Just about everyone, right? After all, it did gross a record setting box office number for its time. Anyway, in the film, (SPOILER ALERT***) Jack (Leonardo DiCaprio) tells Rose (Kate Winslet) that she will die "a very old lady, in her bed." He does this while they are stranded at sea using a door to keep them afloat. Essentially, thirty minutes later at the end of the film, that's apparently what happens. Rose survives and goes onto die a very old woman, quietly in her bed. That's an example of foreshadowing.
So what does this have to do with me? With God? Well, quite truthfully I believe there have been many events in my life where God (the author of our lives) has hinted and clued me in that He is there, watching me, and that one day, I will become a devout Christian.
Here are several life events of mine that helped me realize that God exists and that a Christian life was in the works for me...
The Delaware River Water Gap
My uncle, his daughter,her boyfriend, and I took a trip to the Water Gap in Fall of 2008. The air temperature was a brisk 40 degrees and the water temperature was more than likely in the 30's. We would be fishing for smallmouth bass. We launched our boat around mid-morning.
After spending 30 minutes on the water, my uncle noticed that the current was carrying us in the wrong direction that he had been hoping for. Nothing was biting, just one or two small fish every 12-15 minutes. It seemed like a bust. An hour had passed by and it was getting pretty close to noon. As we were adjusting positions in the water, something caught my eye. It was my reflection in the water. But the Sun was behind my head giving the impression that I had a halo over me. It shone brightly reminding me of Catholic depictions of Jesus Christ.
Not too much later, maybe a few minutes, my cousin heard someone screaming for help. We had drifted in the opposite direction of where the river normally takes boats. She heard it again. She alerted her dad and said, "Look, we need to help them dad!" There were two people in the middle of the river, around a bend where they were out of sight to us before. If it weren't for drifting in that direction, we may not have seen them around that bend. Nonetheless, my uncle motored us over to them and helped the two people into the boat. It was a man and a woman, a couple. Their kayak-thing had overturned and they were both unable to make it to the shoreline due to the strong current and cold water. They were freezing. The man kept saying, "You guys are saviors, you guys are saviors, we were going to die."
I'm not a savior and neither is my uncle. He was humble about the whole experience. I found it to be incredible and the first thing that came into my head when I fully got a chance to take in what had happened was that Jesus was there. God was there. God put us there for a reason.
After returning the couple to their car and warming them up for an hour or so, we headed back out to the water. We felt accomplished but we weren't ready to go home. Instead, we drifted in the RIGHT direction this time (the way my uncle had originally planned to go) and we caught 32 fish. It was a blessed outing.
The Sinner
My friend Michael (from church) and I were just starting to hang out. I had offered to take him to my favorite fishing spot and I said we could have a little Bible study to go with it. So, I picked him up and we talked for a while. We discussed the Lord, our personal trials, our faith, and our love for Jesus Christ. It was different because there's not too many people I had been able to talk about God with my age.
Anyway, down at Cliffwood Beach Rockwall, I casted my lure out into the bay. Reel after reel, I pulled nothing in. I had my Bible out too on the roof of my car. Before Michael and I could even get a chance to open it and talk in depth, a man pulled up next to my car (at this spot, we can park, get out of our car and cast...I call it "drive-thru fishing"). This man was middle-aged and looked like he had just come back from a bar. Either way, he wasn't there to fish. He was indeed a fisherman, just not ready to fish. For some reason, he had to get away and get out.
The man talked with Michael and I about fishing for nearly 30 minutes, maybe longer. We both felt like he was disrupting our Bible study. But then we took notice to something. His shirt said, "Sinner's Club." Or something along those lines. Was he a product of the enemy trying to disrupt our time alone to reflect on God or was it just coincidence.
For a while, we thought he was the enemy coming to distract us, so we left. But after a while, we realized something. Maybe it wasn't the devil tempting us (because he did nothing of the sort). He never asked us to drink with him and he never mentioned the Bible on the hood of my car. In fact, I caught him looking at it and it didn't seem like it bothered him. It seemed like he sighed almost when he saw it.
My conclusion is that he needed us. He was sent there by God to meet with us, to talk to us. Perhaps we were supposed to minister to him? His shirt "Sinner's Club" represented all the sinners in this world, those that don't know Jesus and have not been saved. Michael and I realized then that it was our job to minister to those people, to talk to them about the Lord. Our job was outlined loud and clear after that experience: as Christians, people will come to us who need God in their lives, and we must be ready to bring them in.
If I knew then what I know now, maybe then I wouldn't have taken a look at his shirt and thought "enemy." What I should have done was ask him, "Sir, do you believe in Jesus Christ?" or "Sir, are you a Christian?" Yeah, it's not easy talking to strangers about faith but it's what God has planned for us.
Conclusion
When all is said and done, God is living. He can choose to interact with us when he feels it is appropriate. Like a parent that knows what is best for their child, He will put us places to improve our faith. I firmly believe God intended us to be there on the river that day to save those people. He let us drift in HIS direction before we were allowed to drift OUR way. Yeah, coincidence. I firmly believe that the man with the "Sinner" shirt wasn't a coincidence. Six billion people in this world, Michael and I have a Bible study, a man with a "Sinner" tee is the only person to interrupt. Yeah, coincidence.
Coincidence. Sure. Coincidences like that are harder to believe than it is to believe that there is a higher power working for us, at us, and with us each day. God is real, folks. He has changed my life. He has made me believe that my life has a purpose. He has given each one of us a purpose. God is everything. God is peace, life, and all you need. God is good. All the time.
Those are just two events. Two. Out of the several, the many, that I've had. We all have them. We just need to recognize them as God.
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