Coincidence?

This morning my alarm sounded nine minutes before I needed to rise. I always set it like this so that I can hit the snooze button once. I remember this morning vividly because the dj happened to be announcing the time when I woke. Over an hour later, thirteen minutes before I would normally leave for work, I woke on my own. The alarm was still set. I checked the radio. The signal was fine and the volume was up. There seemed to be no explanation for why I had overslept. I woke my wife for help getting Billy ready for school, and I began to prepare for work. On Friday, I normally arrive at work 2 hours and 25 minutes before my first class, so I knew that I would be okay. I was rather frantic about getting Billy to school on time. He is trying very hard to earn a perfect attendance award this year and I did not want to ruin that. As we arrived at school, we learned that a large flatbed truck had crashed into the side of the school building.. This took place at the time we normally arrive at school. If I had not overslept, we would most certainly have just missed this incident or worse, not missed it. An event like this begs explanation. Let’s take a look at the two most common explanations for such an event.

1. Master PlanSomehow, the events and actions of the participants were planned. This explanation raises a number of questions indeed.

• Coincidence Yahoo! Dictionary defines coincidence as follows:

  NOUN: …2. A sequence of events that althoughaccidental seems to have been planned orarranged.</p>

  So essentially, either this was planned or it was accidental and simply seems to have been planned. I have never been comfortable with these glaringly opposite extremes. On the one hand, if something seems to have been planned, why assume that it was accidental. On the other, the master plan raises some very difficult quesitons in my mind. Too many questions in fact. I choose to believe:

  • The truth lies somewhere in between these two possibilities

  • I may never know the answers to some (indeed many) of life’s quesitons

  • There is an Almighty God who actively sustains His creation

  • Almighty God is a personal God who cares for and protects His people.

  I thank God for protecting me as I travel to work every day. I am especially grateful for today’s coincidence.

  The article linked above incorrectly reports the time of the incident. I arrived at 7:47 and the police and emergency vehicles had already arrived. Eyewitness accounts put the event at closer to 7:20.