I don’t believe in coincidences. Every time I witness a “coincidence” – I recognize God’s fingerprint in my life. His fingerprints are all over my life but some of those fingerprints make me pause in awe.
The day before going to our friend’s lake house, I was in the car driving with a friend who was also headed up to the lake house that weekend. Their family schedule was busy and there was a question as to whether they were going to make it up for the weekend. She assured me they were going to do their best, but if they came, they would have a visitor. Her son, a 22-year-old returned missionary from Portugal, was “babysitting” for the weekend. While he served in Portugal, he became good friends with the mission leaders. Because of this friendship, they asked him to watch over their son for a few days before he reported to the weeklong church camp FSY at BYU. (Ironically, our best friends just sent their daughter to the same mission earlier this summer.)
We made the connection that I was sending two boys to the same FSY week at BYU and Bennett was his age.
I was excited when I saw them walk through the door the morning after we arrived at the lake house with their 15-year-old visitor. He was from Brazil, but had been living in Portugal the last two years and he spoke perfect English. We immediately made the connection that not only was he going the same week as my boys, he was actually in Bennett’s same session. (Every week, there are four sessions with 1000 kids in each session.)
Not a coincidence.
They immediately bonded. And then they were inseparable. He learned how to wake surf. He had a lot of intense tubing adventures. They taught him the game Secret Hitler. They went on the rope swing. They jumped off the boathouse. This kid got the full American lake experience and he was adventurous enough to want to do it all. And he made a friend that would be a familiar face at a summer camp a long way from home.
I was so hopeful we could figure out a way to get them in the same company at FSY but that didn’t work out, but it didn’t need to. Even though they weren’t in the same group, they still found each other, and I got pictures from Bennett of the two of them on campus. Bennett also shared when his new friend broke his arm the very first day playing tag. We put that kid through the ringer over the weekend without an injury and he broke it playing tag. How unlucky is that!?
The second to last night, Bennett called to tell me about his day. His company joined two other companies for a testimony meeting and it was no coincidence they ended up together. And his new foreign friend shared his testimony and shared gratitude for his first American friend, Bennett. They were meant to find each other. Two peas in a pod. The same adventurous and humorous spirit – who just happened to live on opposite sides of the world. God is in the details and His fingerprints are evident.
