I had the same amazing Biology teacher right through my 5 years of high school. Mrs. Vosloo was feared by many but an excellent teacher. I recall her giving the same little speech at the beginning of every year. If you were an unbeliever and sometime during the course of the year, as she exposed you to the wonderful intricacies of plant/animal or human life, you changed your mind, you must please come and tell her what it was that convinced you that there was in fact a God. In her mind there was no better subject than Biology to make a person realise that a Creator existed. I definitely agreed with her and to this day often wondered if there were in fact some student that had an epiphany in her class.
By the time I reached Mrs. Vosloo’s Biology class, I needed no convincing that God in fact existed, that belief was firmly rooted already, most probably thanks to growing up in a home where my parents were believers ( as the cynics love to point out). Be it as it may, I have believed in God for as long as I have a memory.
The beauty of God is that He doesn’t stop showing you that He exists simply because you already believe. He continues to blow your mind in His many mysterious and amazing ways. And so, during my meagre 35 years on this planet, God has revealed Himself and His character to me in so many ways already, often in a way that I can only describe as miraculous. No, I haven’t walked on water yet, haven’t resurrected someone from the grave and never turned a couple of bread loaves into food to feed the masses. But I have prayed simple prayers that were answered in amazing ways.
And this is what this post is about. Just a simple testimony to the goodness of God that has followed me all the way to the very un-Christian nation of Australia. The past week was a little difficult, school holidays are for some reason always a bit harder. The isolation a bit more pronounced, the boys driving me crazy just a tad more than usual. So on Friday morning I uttered one of those wordless prayers. And it just went something along the lines of I miss living in a small town and bumping into people I know whenever I go out, and that I wish I was at the stage where I actually saw people I knew as I was driving or in the shop or walking around in my neighbourhood. I miss that sense of belonging.
5 minutes later I pulled the car out of the driveway and on the very next block I spotted someone walking her dog, realising just in time it’s a lady that attends book club with me, that I didn’t even know lived in my area. So I could offer a friendly wave to someone I knew.
15 minutes later in a busy shopping mall amongst hundreds of other people, guess who I bump into? One of the 2 close friends I have made here in Perth so far. Someone who is going through a rough patch herself, to whom I can offer some encouragement and actually feel as if I am useful and making a difference.
One day later, on the way back from the train station I bump into a fellow South African that lives two blocks away from me. We met each other by chance in the park (thank you for the unique South African accent). We quickly have a chat about the kids, arrange a playdate for the next week and she gives me advice on gas heaters when she hears me complain about our freezing cold house.
I walked away from that encounter with a huge grin on my face. You may call it coincidence or karma or whatever, I call it the grace of God working small miracles in my life just to let me know He loves me and everything will be ok.
“There are two ways to live your life- one is as though nothing is a miracle, the other is as though everything is a miracle” -Albert Einstein-
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