God-Incidents

By James N. Watkins

“The first girl you meet when you return to Marion College will become your wife.” No, this wasn’t the prediction of a fortune teller or a 900-number “psychic friend.” My pastor’s wife was trying to console me after a break-up of an engagement and the feeling that I’d never, ever find true love.

“I just feel that’s what the Lord is telling me,” she said confidently. I was skeptical, but I did go back to school with a sense of fear that the “Bride of Frankenstein” would be waiting for me.

To quickly make my point, the first girl I met that year at college was Lois Farra—definitely no Bride of Frankenstein. Two and a half years later she changed her last name to “Watkins.” A coincidence, perhaps. I would rather think of it as one of my friends calls it: “A God-Incident.”

Throughout life God is orchestrating His will for our lives with “as it turned out” and “just then” incidents. Lois just “happened to be” the first person I met on campus. Recently, when our car broke down several miles from home, a neighbor “just happened” to have had to work late and “just happened” to notice us beside the road. When Lois and a friend from out of town missed an appointment with each other at the hospital where both needed to call on parishioners, Lois decided to pick up some supplies at a Christian bookstore several miles from the hospital. “As it turned out” her friend “just happened” to be at the very same store!

Throughout my life, the Lord has used “God-Incidents” to have me meet the right people for employment, writing assignments, and other ministry opportunities.

QUOTE: Barbara Johnson—“I’m glad God has all the answers, ’cause I barely understand the questions.”

“Your eyes saw me when I was inside the womb. All the days ordained for me were recorded in your scroll before one of them came into existence,” Psalm 139:16 NET.

Today’s devotion is by James N. Watkins, reprinted by permission from www.jameswatkins.com, copyright © 2009. He is the author of sixteen books, including Squeezing Good Out of Bad, and over two thousand articles. He has spoken across the United States as well as overseas.