Providence & Serendipity:
The Right Place, The Right Time, All the Time
One way God proves His existence, and sovereignly manages the lives of His faithful seekers, is through providence. Providence is best described as God's subtle development of events and outcomes. Manifestations are immediate, obvious, maybe even spectacular, however, providence is God's almost-imperceptible activity in the background, organizing events and outcomes that require multiple parts coming together with uncanny synchronicity.
God can work providentially for negative or judgment-oriented matters, or, for positive or blessing-oriented matters. This message will focus on the latter.
God works providentially in the lives of His remnant to get us in the right place, at the right time, all the time. A lovely synonym for providence is serendipity. This term is used by unbelievers to mean a lucky stroke, a happy accident, a happy coincidence, or good fortune, but serendipity in a Judeo-Christian Biblical worldview means God's providential work in creating ironic, perfect coincidences in the lives of His faithful seekers. Two scriptures touching this are Psalm 21:3 and Isaiah 64:5 (both NKJV):
For You meet him with blessings of goodness...
You meet him who rejoices and does righteousness...
The phrase "You meet him" is another way of saying we bump into a blessing, we stumble into a divine setup. A seemingly accidental meeting. A divine appointment that began as a practical inconvenience. God "meets" His faithful seekers during the ordinary routines of their life with gifts, favors, rewards, and opportunities.
The Book of Esther
God's Word is filled with divine serendipities, so I will mention only the book of Esther, the locus classicus of the concept of providence.
God's name or title does not appear at all, not even once, in Esther. Yet, providential acts drive the entire story and outcomes! Mordecai heard a certain conversation at the right place, at the right time. The king's insomnia paired with an "accidental" discovery of Mordecai's unrewarded loyalty. Esther's time of birth, ethnicity, anointed beauty, the loss of her parents...connected her to Mordecai and eventually the king and eventually the saving of the Jewish people. If you want to understand providence and serendipity, understand this book.
Why did God inspire the author of Esther to not mention Him at all? This seems demure for a God who is fixated on His own great name. It is because He wanted you and I to know that, from total invisibility, obscurity, and namelessness, He can still develop any event and outcome He wants.
My goodness, the Lord is speaking to us.