Recently I found myself on a stage after being introduced by a guy wearing the same brand and colour of shirt I was wearing. But that’s nothing compared to the three crazy coincidences you’re about to hear.
A three-year-old Colorado boy fell out a third floor window, did two summersaults and landed on his feet. “I fall really really far,” Dylan Hayes told CBS news. His mother said the boy was “beyond lucky.” He also happened to be wearing a Superman shirt. During the 1930s, a man named Joseph Figlock was out for a walk when a baby fell out a window, landing on Joseph’s shoulders. Exactly one year later, the same baby fell on Joseph again at the exact same spot. Neither were harmed.
In 1939, twin boys were separated at birth. Their adopting families named them both James. Both married a woman named Linda. Both had boys they named James Alan. Both divorced and remarried women named Betty. Both had a dog named Troy. In 1979 the men were reunited. Imagine their laughter upon discovering these amazing coincidences.
Sometimes a remarkable concurrence of events can happen. But far more remarkable to me is how many put their faith in coincidence. I talked with a 25-year-old who was searching for God and I asked, “When you look at the night sky, do you think all this is coincidence?” She smiled. “No way,” she said. “My parents and teachers taught me that. But I don’t buy it. How could this have all just happened?” In his book The Language of God, the brilliant scientist Francis Collins writes: “When you look from the perspective of a scientist at the universe, it looks as if it knew we were coming. There are 15 constants – the gravitational constant, various constants about the strong and weak nuclear force, etc. – that have precise values. If any one of those constants was off by even one part in a million, or in some cases, by one part in a million million, the universe could not have actually come to the point where we see it…there would have been no galaxy, stars, planets, or people.” To put my faith in the coincidence of something coming from nothing seems akin to believing I could whack six million consecutive 95-mile-an-hour fastballs over the fence with one arm into the same guy’s drink.
Someone said, “Did you know baseball is mentioned in the Bible?” I didn’t know this. He said, “In the big inning…” Well, “in the beginning God created the heavens and the earth,” Genesis tells us. Nothing else makes sense to me. Nothing else but knowing the God who loves us can fill us with such purpose, meaning, joy and hope.
Want to read more from Phil?
Never Bet Against Prayer
With world events being what they are, I am reminded of a true story that encouraged me years ago, not…
Bored in Heaven?
From the time our kids were small, they’ve wondered about heaven. One night during supper, Stephen, our eldest, asked, “When…
3 Tips for a Peaceful Christmas
Christmas is coming, friends. Ah, the food, the turkey, the pumpkin pie, the beets! Okay, not the beets so much,…