It just so happens...

Let me start off by saying I like it when people have reoccurring themes in their blogs so I have decided to create some for my blog. The first one will be titled "It just so happens..." This title came from a Bible study on the book of Ruth I was involved in last fall. The play group I joined with our church here in Jacksonville did an alternating play group/Bible study every week. The play group was fun, but Clark wasn't really old enough to play yet and most of the kids were a good bit older than him. I really went because I needed friends. The Bible study was the highlight of the group for me because we talked about things that were going on in our lives and studied together. Our group leader decided to try out an online sermon series instead of reading a book. She said she often has so many books to read that it's hard to make time to read the Bible, so instead of having another book we listened to the sermon for the week, took notes, read the passage that went with the week and then brought questions/discussion we got from the text.

We studied the book of Ruth with Mark Driscoll. It was my first exposure to Mark Driscoll and it was a wonderful study. The first chapter was by far my favorite. He went through the themes of Ruth and one of the things he said was that the author often uses the language "It just so happens..." when he's talking about something God prearranged to work for the character's good. For instance Ruth "just so happens" to glean in the field of Boaz, or Boaz "just so happens" to be from Naomi's family line. The author doesn't really mean it happened by chance, but it's a way of making these arrangements from God stand out. Also, the reoccurring theme makes these seeming coincidences draw the attention of the reader.

As I started thinking there are so many "just so happens" events that God has orchestrated in my life to bring me to where I am today. Often I forget these things, view them as coincidences or just take them for granted. So, I've decided to start retelling these stories for my own benefit and for the benefit of anyone who happens upon my blog. To start out I may go back and record some of the "just so happens" stories from the last few years and then add the new ones as they happen. Here's a quick list of some of the things I may go back and ellaborate on in more detail in the future.

God's provision of scholarships, work study and random gifts to pay for my college education debt free.

God's provision of $28.000 needed to send me to Japan in only 5 weeks time.

Landing in Tokyo in a short two hour window between a typhoon ending and the 9/11 attack which would have grounded our plane for over a week.

Michael and I's "chance" meeting at a Boy Scout camp in New Mexico (how can you not say God had something to do with that?)

God's provision of a 5 bedroom house for us to live in rent free for 7 months when Michael first started seminary while we waited for our house to sell.

A buyer for our house without a realtor so that we didn't have to pay commission, made money off our house even in a down market, paid off Michael's car, paid for seminary and still have money is savings.

The thousands of dollars paid toward Michael's seminary, most of which didn't come from us.

Living within 30 minutes of my grandparents for the last 7 months of my grandma's life-- she got to see Clark often (which always brought a smile to her face) and I could spend time with her and my Grandpa could become one of my best friends in Jacksonville.

Ok, so you get the idea. Just writing this list makes me excited to see what God's going to do in the future, especially in bringing Michael into the ministry job he has been preparing for him (even though he hasn't revealed that to us yet).