What are the odds?
As many of you know my dad passed away recently. The morning we were supposed to leave to drive to Knoxville for the funeral, we discovered the mortuary had not printed the Order of Service in the funeral bulletin. I told mom not to worry, I would create an insert for the bulletin and we could add it. She asked if I would print the lyrics to one of the songs dad had requested. It was called “I Was There to Hear Your Borning Cry.” I assured her I would.
I had never heard the song before, so when I got to my office, I looked up the lyrics and listened to several versions as I created the insert. The lyrics were beautiful and so fitting for the occasion. I printed the inserts, cut them to size, gathered my things, and walked out the door to go to my car.
That’s when it happened.
I had not planned to come to the office at all that morning. I had not planned to leave at a particular time. I simply left when I finished. I had several interruptions as I was working, phone calls, emails and little things I let distract me from the reality of what I was working on. The walk from my office to my car takes about 45 seconds.
Yet, around ten steps out of the exterior doors, I stopped in my tracks.
Our steeple bells chime and play various songs throughout the day. I hear them all the time, but in that moment, those bells were ringing the tune to the very song I had just printed for my dad.
What are the odds? Seriously, I would love to know how to quantify the statistical odds of all of those circumstances coming together at precisely that moment. I was in awe.
I believe God is intimately involved in our lives, loves us more than we can understand, and is always speaking to us, even though it often is hard for us to listen. In a moment when I needed to know God was close, our Creator came through in a resounding way. Literally.
If you take a minute to look up the lyrics to the song “I Was There to Hear Your Borning Cry,” you’ll understand why that moment was so poignant to me.
My prayer for you today is that you will slow down long enough to notice one of the countless ways God is declaring God’s love for you.
Blessings.
Michael McEntyre, Minister of Engaged Aging