I was standing outside a boutique on Broad Street in Rome, Georgia this afternoon pondering the working of God’s providence. Here is what I concluded: I don’t understand it, but I depend upon it and I am always both grateful and surprised when I notice it. By providence I don’t mean the deterministic, micro-management of the movement of every atom that some insist upon. My experience of free will doesn’t not allow for that understanding. Rather, I mean God’s wise ordering and governance of creation in ways and by means largely unknown to me, ways that might seem like mere coincidence to those whose vision has not been shaped by faith.

This morning while praying before dawn on a screened porch overlooking a lake, I had the urge to contact a dear person for whom I pray daily — one whom I rarely see and with whom I too rarely converse. I texted simply to say that I was thinking about him and that his faithfulness is an encouragement to me. He responded quickly with news that he will be confirmed on Sunday. This is deeply joyful news to me for reasons I will not, and cannot fully, explain. Had I been somewhere else would I have experienced the same urge? If so, would I have responded to it? My urge, his news: coincidence or providence?

Last night I had a telephone conversation part of which concerned a matter requiring spiritual discernment. My small contribution was to mention Rule 5 of the discernment of spirits by Ignatius of Loyola: in a time of desolation, never change a spiritually sound decision made previously in a time of spiritual consolation. You do not need to understand that fully to appreciate what follows. This morning I opened my kindle to do a bit of reading. Since I have several books in-process, I could have opened any of them. I made my selection not quite at random, but also with no particular intent. The first page I opened to was a summary of Rule 5 of the discernment of spirits by Ignatius of Loyola. Coincidence or providence? I would have opened to that page sometime, perhaps several days from now. But it would not have meant what it meant this morning.

Then, standing outside the boutique on Broad Street later this afternoon, a woman approached me asking for some money. I always keep a few dollars and a prayer card from Apostles Anglican Church in my pocket for such occasions, and I rather automatically took the small offering and gave it to her. She was as interested in the card as in the money and asked if I had another. She likes reading such things, she explained. I happened to have another, and I gave it to her. Just as she walked away I received a text from someone I had been praying for; the news from the medical test came back early and was very good. Thanks be to God! But, the timing is very interesting, isn’t it? Had I ignored the woman’s request for money and another card, would I have received the text at that moment? Was it a woman at all, or perhaps an angel unawares? Who can say: coincidence or providence?

What should we make of this? Three times in less than twenty-four hours I experienced either unusual coincidences or providence. If my worldview were not informed by faith, I would have noticed none of these; in fact, none would likely have happened. But it is, and they did, and I must decide: coincidence or providence? All of these incidents have the aroma of grace about them, and I am grateful.