How many events in our daily lives do we categorize as just coincidence that are actually a GODincidence? My sister-in-law Christine in yesterday’s telephone call shared one. Going into a fast food restaurant, she tripped on the sidewalk, landed on the pavement on her nose and banged up her knee. A woman who was going through the drive through lane, saw the fall, gushing blood, parked immediately and came to assist. The woman was a nurse and determined that medics were not needed. Christine thanked her, and they exchanged phone numbers. The following morning the woman called to check how she was doing. Christine said, “You were my guardian angel.” The woman replied, “I am” and related the following. She had never been to the restaurant before. She drove that route on her regular visits to her daughter but never took food. That day, however, her daughter had an unusual request for the mother to pick up some food from there on her way to visit.
God is always present in the moments of our lives. Think of the orchestration for this restaurant encounter. Christine fell at the exact time as the woman, a nurse was there to help and comfort. God had been working even long before the accident occurred: the restaurant on the road to the daughter’s, an unexpected food stop, witnessing the fall from the drive through lane…. so many pieces to put in place.
This event had me recalling a favorite hymn from my childhood: “His Eye is on the Sparrow, and I Know He Watches Me.” I looked up the backstory to the hymn. Inspired by Psalm 32:8 and Matthew 6:26, it was written in 1905. The author became friends with a couple where the wife had been bedridden for 20 years and the husband wheelchair bound. He asked them the secret of their always hopefulness. The wife’s reply: “His eye is on the sparrow, and I know He watches me.” Struck by her expression of boundless faith, the author wrote the hymn.
“His Eye is on the Sparrow” has been sung by Ethel Waters who used the title for her autobiography, Mahalia Jackson whose recording received the Grammy Hall of Fame Award in 2010, and Whitney Houston whose version was released after her death. Listen to one of these recordings and sing the words in praise to our ever watching over us Father.
~ Linda