It always makes me smile when synchronicity appears. Carl Jung coined the word to explain those times in your life when amazingly coincidental things happen. A good example of this is when you find a picture of an old friend stuck inside a book and then run into her the next day. Another way to describe this phenomenon is that you are witnessing the tender mercies of God. It always feels like a hug from above when these things occur. I had one of these occurrences yesterday, which prompted me to share these thoughts with you.

On our campus we have computer support personnel assigned to each building.  Whenever we have computer “issues” we call up our support person and they fix it for us.  A couple of weeks ago we got a new support guy.  We had his office phone number, but not his cell.  He was never in his office as he was always around campus fixing computers.  I happen to know his daughter.  I thought to myself, “the next time I see Stacy I’m going to ask for her dad’s cell number.”  It wasn’t an hour later that I passed her.  I hadn’t seen Stacy for months!  It took me by surprise so much that I failed to ask for the number.  I told the secretary that I work with that the very next time I see her I would ask for the number.  Less than 24 hours later I had to hike to upper campus to hand deliver an important document needing a signature.  I went to the 3^rd floor of a building I hadn’t been in for a year, and literally ran into Stacy.  This time I got the number. And I left smiling. 

Another dramatic instance of synchronicity in my life happened about 18 months ago while doing the mundane task of mowing my lawn.  It was in the late afternoon on a hot July day when I finally got around to the lawn-mowing task.   The sun was starting to sink into the western sky, which irritated my eyes every time I faced that direction.  My eyes have always been overly sensitive to bright light. I usually end up with a headache.  I had mowed for about 10 minutes when I felt the headache coming on and thought to myself, “I sure wish I had a visor”.  I was in the swing of mowing, though, and didn’t stop to go in the house to retrieve one.  Less than 5 minutes later a car pulled into my driveway and stopped next to me.  My friend, Vione, rolled down her car window and handed me a visor. I almost couldn’t speak. She said she was cleaning her house and found the visor that my daughter left at her house the previous week. Over a year went my before I told her my side of things on that July day.  Then she was speechless. 

It reminds me of the song “From A Distance” by Bette Midler.  I love the lines; 

“God is watching us.

God is watching us from a distance.”

And He not only watches, but once in a while He reaches down and gives us a hug.