Not just a coincidence.

I was out for an exercise and companionship walk with my wife Rosemary and I saw an unusual piece of plastic on the footpath. Being the ever-curious one, I picked it up to look at it. I wondered what it was used for, as it was very small, shaped like a miniature bottle cork on one end and with a small round knob on the other.

I purposed to put it in the rubbish bin when I got home, but I forgot, and it was still in my hand when I reached my outdoor workbench. I placed it on the bench and promptly forgot about it.

Several days later I was using a rental car, a hatch-back wagon, and in the boot there is a shelf suspended from the boot lid with two elastic straps. This shelf is designed to shield the contents of the boot from view when the boot is closed. A previous renter had broken one of the fasteners and had repaired it with, of all things, what looked like chewing gum or some other adhesive and it was coming off. As I hadn't noticed it when I signed the rental agreement, I was concerned that I would be held responsible for the cost of its repair when I returned the vehicle at the end of the rental period.

I examined the broken fitting and I immediately knew why the piece of plastic that I had picked up just a few days prior was not in the rubbish bin. This plastic plug with a knob on the end was identical to the original fitting and was easily clipped into place to substitute with the broken one.

My lack of higher mathematical ability cannot fathom the chances of this being a coincidence. I believe that this could not possibly have occurred without divine intervention and I thanked God for his concern with the minutia of our lives. Coincidence is when God chooses to remain anonymous.

Lionel Hartley 

 Habits of Prayer.

For many years my wife and I would often retreat to a block of land that we owned in the Brother Mountains east of Glen Innes in New South Wales. Following the sale of the house that we had there, we returned often to stay in a caravan in an adjoining block of land that we had purchased separately because it contained an artesian well. Our water supply in the caravan was from a tank under the caravan, filled as necessary from the well. To get the water into the sink I had fitted a small hand-operated piston pump attached to the tap.

 

When the pump was frequently used, very little energy was required to have water, as the water poured out at the first stroke. But if the pump had not been used for a long time, the water got low in the pipe, and when we wanted it we had to pump a long while, and the water came only after some effort.

 

So it is with prayer; if we are instant in prayer, every little circumstance awakens the disposition to pray so that desires and words are always ready. But if we neglect prayer, it is difficult for us to pray, for the water in the pipe gets low.

-- Lionel Hartley www.lrhartley.com