Serendipity

ser·en·dip·i·ty

[ser-uhn-dip-i-tee] /ˌsɛrənˈdɪpɪti/ Show Spelled

noun

an aptitude for making desirable discoveries by accident.

 

Last month, I was reading the blog of some friends who are tremendous and generous adoption supporters and learned about a birthday surprise that was being planned to honor the blogger's upcoming 40th birthday. Knowing that her friend had a generous and giving heart, and that another family that they knew was raising money to bring a child home from Africa to join their family, readers of the blog were being asked to donate money toward the adoption. I read the phrase, "no amount is too small" and decided to participate with a small donation of my own.

You can see the results of the birthday surprise here. AMAZING!!!

Fast-forward to yesterday. I was sitting at my desk and looked out the window to see our familiar Terminix man coming across the lawn to do our monthly pest control treatment (to keep our church bug-free). He came in and did what he needed to do in the office and then I took him over to unlock some other parts of the buildings where he needed access. Normal routine.

When he came back to the office to give me the receipt, he began searching for something on his phone and said that he wanted to show us a picture. He brought up a photo of a sweet little girl with dark skin and told me that this was the daughter that his family was adopting soon. I asked where she is from and he told me she is from Uganda.

I immediately asked if she was related to a ministry that my blogging friend started, and I began dropping names of people that I either knew or read about. The light finally came on in my head and I finally connected enough dots and realized that Mr. Terminix is the husband/father in the family for whom the birthday donations were benefiting! Before I knew it, Mr. Terminix was giving me a hug and thanking me for being a part of bringing his daughter home!

After he left, I continued to marvel at everything that had just taken place. From the beginning, I had felt like my involvement was just a drop in the bucket of what was needed, and when I had originally seen the video of the results of the birthday gift, I had tears in my eyes, in awe of what God had done, using the small and not-so-small gifts of so many! It was icing on the cake to be able to make the connection with the man who is going to be traveling to Africa in a few weeks to get his sweet little girl!

Last Sunday, our pastor preached from Luke 9 about the feeding of the five-thousand and how Jesus works through His Church and His disciples to further His kingdom and spread the gospel. He desires to do it that way, even though He is capable of speaking a word and making something happen without any help from anyone. But Jesus chooses to use me, you, all believers, and no amount of money, or no prayer or no person is too small. He puts it all together and makes beautiful things happen, like putting orphans into families.

May I never be surprised at what God can do, but may I always stand amazed when I see what He has done!