Coincidence? Or Grand Design?

I had a math professor in college, an eccentric fellow to say the least. As he hunched over and peered into the overhead projector to show us an enlarged example of the solution to his math problems, he would pause, look up with a conspiratorial squint in his eyes, raise his inky index finger, and say, "Coincidence? Or Grand Design?"

He was making a statement about how God has placed the universal truths of math, along with its recurring patterns, into this created world.

I wouldn't say these coincidences happen to me frequently, but from time to time they pop up without warning, and it's usually about something I'm teaching. Here's the most recent one.

I was teaching a lesson on Tuesday in Bible class to my 7th graders, and a piece of the lesson was directed toward Bible translators around the world. We discussed this for a bit, and then I referred to somebody from a particular organization who spoke in my church about this over a year ago. I walked the students through the process of how a translator might do the job in a different country. But for the life of me, in that moment, I couldn't remember the organization's name. The bell rang, and we went off to chapel. Since it's our Spiritual Emphasis Week this week, we have chapel every day. Of course my thoughts shifted during chapel to how the Spirit moves in our lives, and I forgot about our class discussion for a while.

That afternoon, I received one of those emails I get from random organizations once in a while. However, this organization didn't seem so random--it was Wycliffe Bible Translators.

What?! I hadn't ever received an email from them before, and now it was on the same day I had discussed it in class. They were asking for teachers interested in considering working in the organization. It was funny, too, because the email wasn't even intended for me--it was for my wife who also teaches (and who has a very similar email address as me).

That's not the end of my coincidence, though.

The next morning in Bible class we reviewed some material about Bible translation, and I shared with the students again about how the Spirit moves in mysterious ways. Then I told them about the crazy coincidence about how I found out the organization's name. Some of them were quite impressed. I shared with them that when we visited chapel again directly after class to be open to the Spirit's leading, and I left them with that.

We sang some songs and had an altogether wonderful time of worship. Our speaker for the week began talking, and about 10-15 minutes into his talk he told our group of middle school and high school students about his conversion story as a high schooler and his ensuing plan to work for...

...wait for it...

...Wycliffe Bible Translators!

My 7th grade Bible class was way on the other side of the auditorium, so I just sat up a little higher and checked to see if any of them caught the connection. After a couple of moments, one of the boys in my class popped his head up and looked over at me. We exchanged a knowing nod, and I sat marveling about what these connections could mean.

Some people would say they mean nothing; it's just coincidence.

But could it mean more? Maybe the Lord was speaking to me about working with Wycliffe Bible Translators someday. I couldn't even contemplate doing that right now, but maybe someday... It sounds really cool! Maybe since the mysterious email was addressed to my wife, it was meant for her (but of course we're a packaged deal).

But maybe, just maybe, it was meant for a certain 7th grader in my Bible class. I don't know. Maybe through our discussion in class, the random email, the mention of the exact organization in chapel where we hope the Spirit moves mightily, maybe through these coincidences, God had a message for somebody, maybe God decided to spark somebody's purpose.

Coincidence? Or Grand Design?