God truly works in mysterious ways.
April 8, 1974, I unexpectedly found myself in Atlanta on a business trip. I walked into the Howard Johnson adjacent to Fulton County Stadium and asked the desk clerk for a room. “Are you kidding? He said, “Everything is sold out around here.” Just then, the phone rang. I listened as the clerk took a cancellation. “I guess I have a room for you after all.”
“Do you think I’d be able to get tickets to tonight’s Braves game,” I asked.
“Not likely. The game is sold out.”
A woman who was standing in the lobby approached me with her young daughter. “My husband is caught in a business meeting and won’t be able to make it in time for the game. Would you like his ticket?” I offered to pay her, but she said that the ticket didn’t cost her anything, so she wouldn’t feel right selling it. I thanked her and headed for the stadium. That evening, I was one of 53,775 people who showed up for the game—a Braves attendance record – to see Hank Aaron hit homerun #715, breaking Babe Ruth’s record.
I wasn’t a regular reader of the Bible, but when I returned to my hotel room following the game, something moved me to open the Gideon Bible that was on the desk. I started to read and encountered a story about the Apostle Paul that was new to me:
Eutychus Raised From the Dead at Troas 7 On the first day of the week we came together to break bread. Paul spoke to the people and, because he intended to leave the next day, kept on talking until midnight. 8 There were many lamps in the upstairs room where we were meeting. 9 Seated in a window was a young man named Eutychus, who was sinking into a deep sleep as Paul talked on and on. When he was sound asleep, he fell to the ground from the third story and was picked up dead. 10 Paul went down, threw himself on the young man and put his arms around him. “Don’t be alarmed,” he said. “He’s alive!” 11 Then he went upstairs again and broke bread and ate. After talking until daylight, he left. 12 The people took the young man home alive and were greatly comforted. (Acts 20:7-12)
That story tickled my funny bone. I thought about the times I had grumbled about a preacher giving sermons that were too long…, but here was a case where someone actually got “preached to death.” The story of Eutychus made me wonder if there were other stories in the Bible I had missed. That night, something changed for me. I read on for several hours, and the more I read, the more I wanted to read.
What some call coincidences, others call miracles. Author Squire Rushnell refers to what happened to me as God Winks. I happened to be in the right place at the right time. A woman was generous, not greedy. Dodger pitcher Al Downing decided to pitch to Aaron rather than walk him. The Gideon’s left a Bible in that hotel room where I could see it. My random choice of a scripture to read was that story from Acts 20. Just an interesting series of coincidences, or was God winking at me?
Psalm 119 contains 176 verses that extol the Word of God, the most familiar being verse 105: Your word is a lamp for my feet, a light on my path. Many of the verses of this psalm have to do with the psalmist’s desire to follow the word of God. I, like the psalmist, have found that God’s Word is a lamp unto my feet, a light on my path. I am thankful that lamp started to burn so much brighter for me that miraculous evening in Atlanta.
Blessings, Your friends in Christ
Verse for the Week: Jesus said, “If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples.” (John 8:21)
Because He Loves Us Press 