It was a divine coincidence—one of those experiences in life that make you wonder if God likes to play pranks on his children, not to tease us, but to surprise and encourage us with his mysterious workings behind the scenes of our lives.
I received a phone call from a stranger who lived not far from me, telling me he thought he might have a Bible of mine. He said he was about to throw out some books he had kept for years and found my name in one that was an old King James Bible. I had lived in two different states for many years since growing up in Minnesota. And now as an adult I had returned to the area where I grew up, yet had no idea that I had lost the Bible and didn’t miss it. He brought it to me, saying, “I couldn’t throw out a book like the Bible, and something told me I should try to look up the name in the cover.”
Seeing it for the first time was surreal, like a trip back in time. It was my confirmation Bible. I couldn’t believe it. It had my name and the date, 1968, on the title page. It even had my scribbles on the pages where I had drawn during boring church services.
It was given to me in seventh grade, and at about that time I had made several recommitments of my life to Jesus my Savior with no idea of how to serve him as Lord. Looking at that Bible brought to mind my lifelong struggle to make sense of the passages for which my theology didn’t have room.
If you’d like to get in touch with Keith, you can reach him at www.keithmeyer.org. He’d love to hear from you.
To read the rest of this article, you can purchase the entire issue or just this article through our Journal Store.
 Keith Meyer coaches pastors, leads staff retreats and can be contacted at keithmeyer.org. He is the author of Whole Life Transformation: Becoming the Change Your Church Needs.
|
