just a coincidence?

One thing that I constantly tell our teens at youth group is that I don't believe in coincidences.  At all.  Everything that ever happens, I believe, happens for a reason.  In both the great blessings in life and the great challenges, I believe that God is actively involved in allowing these things to happen for a greater glory.

I choose to believe this because, mostly, it gives me peace that I would otherwise not be able to have.  If I can trust that God is completely in control of a situation and walking along side me as it happens, it gives me great peace to know that, regardless of the outcome, God has seen this happening from His place above time.

We are fortunate to be living in the time after Jesus has lived, died, and resurrected.  We can look back at the Rahab's and the Joshua's and the many, many others in the Old Testament who wondered how their lives would ultimately be fulfilled and realized in God.  We can look back, through Christ, and recognize the beauty of His handiwork in their lives that stands the test of generations.

If we struggle to see how our present challenge is going to end, let us remember God's faithfulness to those who came before us.  Let us find peace that our God is not a God of random coincidences, but of divine preparation and intervention.  He is a Father who sacrificed His own Son so that anyone could experience life with Him.

That is certainly no coincidence.