Looking back on your life, odds are you can contemplate huge turning points that depended on the smallest things. This is because God is "behind the scenes." He is always watching. He is  behind the largest and smallest. He puts you at the "right place at the right time."

You can call it "due season": the Lord will work for years at making certain matters fall in place at just the right time. He is the One Who makes matters coincide -- "coincidence." These are all points made recently by a preacher and how true they are. A man meets his future wife while in a jewelry store replacing a watch battery. What if the battery had lasted a bit longer? What if he had gone to another store? What if he had gone there just an hour later, or before, or if others had been there, separating them from conversation? Another person meets a life-changing friend due to a flat tire: What seemed like an unfortunate event was anything but unfortunate. In fact, nothing is unfortunate when handled properly; with prayer, all is within The Lord's design.

Often life baffles us and yet God speaks to everyone. He puts it all together. Trust and faith activate the plan He has for us. God speaks to everyone -- especially when we pass a "test" and especially through little "coincidences," often involving the deceased (whom we remember in a special way next week).

A faith-filled viewer named Andrea Walshe from New York was having great difficulty with the death of her father. The mourning had dragged on. Then she happened to see an article on this website about how we should not overly mourn ("let the dead bury the dead"), and in the article was a photo of Pope Pius IX, who spoke about such matters and promoted prayers for the souls in purgatory.

The photo of Pius (see above, left) bore an incredible likeness to her dad (right)!

"My family is just amazed at the resemblance of the first picture," wrote Andrea, who works in the financial community. "But my husband is not surprised at all because he had asked Our Blessed Mother for a specific sign for me and I received it. He was just surprised at how fast his prayer was answered! We do not believe in 'coincidences,' only God incidences."

Think of the "coincidences" that have consoled just when you needed to be consoled or even changed your life and you will see the Hand of God. So many involve our parents, and others.

You run into a friend who introduces you to an acquaintance who leads you to someone who gives you a job. You open a book and there is a sentence that speaks to your heart. You pray and a favor occurs on the feast day of a saint.

God is Creator of all. Think of how He has orchestrated your life! His putting you in a particular place at that specific point in your life could have been years in the making! He also lets us know that this life is not the end, that barring condemnation we all see each other again. That leaves no room for morbidity -- nor coincidence. There are "coincidences" related to here and also to the hereafter.

"Here is a photo of our friend Scott, who joined Our Lord in Heaven two years ago," write Tim and Helga Burns of Cotuit, Massachusetts. "What is remarkable about this photo is that it set itself as the desktop background on his mother's home computer about a year after he died! She has no idea how this happened. She lives alone, so it wasn't someone else who put it there. What is so special about this photo is that Scott and his mom are from New Rochelle, New York, and one of Scott's favorite lines was 'I'm from the Bronx, kid!' He asked Tim, who took the photo in Los Angeles, where Scott tragically passed away, to take the picture expressly because of the New York-themed backdrop! We are still amazed at this photo -- it is one of several miraculous 'appearances' by Scott to several people since he died. He was raised in a Catholic family and several of his family members, including his mother, are very devout.  It made me believe that there are saints in Heaven who pray for us!"

And help God orchestrate matters here on earth, as lights in the darkness.

10/23/06