For every follower of Christ, especially as they get along in years, there are a few stories which they carry all through their lives which testify to their belief in God, and even illustrate why they believe. This is one of those stories, and yet it is quite fresh. It did not happen to me, but to my younger brother Reynolds, who explained it in detail just a day or so after it happened. After he laid it all out, I realized that this could only have happened to him; that it probably would never have happened to me, and that it was a special, God-ordained moment designed just for him... but one which all believers can appreciate.
We were walking together on the street in front of our hotel in Rapid City, South Dakota, far from our Texas homeland, after a delicious breakfast at a popular restaurant. Suddenly he stopped me and said he wanted to tell me a story. I had no idea where he was going with our conversation, for my brother can be quite the joker when he wants to be. But given the reason for our being in Rapid City, I refrained from ducking or doubting him. We had just attended the memorial service for Ryan, our 33 year-old nephew the day before, who was tragically killed in a long-boarding accident, and we were both still in a solemn mood. He pointed across the street, right in front of a bar within the hotel, and blurted out “It was right there!” He was already almost in tears. I stood respectfully, hoping he could hurry up and get it out. We had been walking with my wife and daughter, and they were getting away from us. But what he told me rocked my world, and everything stopped for a moment, and days later I am still occupied with it.
My brother had stumbled into a significant Divine Appointment at that spot in front of the bar. A couple of days earlier, he had found a popular taco stand there. After arriving in Rapid City, and registering at the hotel, he had stopped in the adjacent bar and like many smart travelers, inquired from the locals about a good place to get a bite to eat. They reassured him, the traveling taco stand out front was safe and a great place to start. This was just one tiny link in a long line of “coincidences.” But I might have have missed them all. I would never have gone into that bar and talked with the bartender in the first place. I therefore would never have eaten at the taco stand, since I would not have considered it as an option, with or without the bartender's assurances. But Reynolds went right where he was supposed to.
Before I go any farther, I need to introduce you to the messenger in this story: David, a kind of mortal angel. I do not know his last name. But I believe that God hand-picked David before the beginning of time to be an unwitting player in this story, an angel if you will. David is an African-American from San Antonio, Texas and is the owner and proprietor of the taco stand. My brother learned this when he explained to the taco man and his wife that he had high expectations about tacos, since he was from the place of origin of many taco-makers.
David countered that he had been orphaned as a child and raised by Hispanics in Texas, and knew well his trade. But more importantly, back to all of those “coincidences,” David was a strong believer in, and an obedient servant of Jesus Christ, and lived there in Rapid City, and when my brother told him why he was in town, the taco man was startled to a standstill. He looked into my brothers eyes with compassion and said, “It happened in front of my house.”
Of all of the people my brother could have run into, in a city of 76,000 people, just minutes after arriving, was one of the last people to see our nephew alive. And of all of the people that our nephew could have had his terrible, fatal accident in front of their home, he slipped and fell in front of David's home in the middle of the night. And of all of the people who might have heard something outside and who might or might not have checked it out, David ran out and found Ryan in the street with a horrible head wound. And there he and his wife prayed for the young man, until an ambulance arrived. Suddenly the tacos were merely incidental to both men as they talked about the tragedy.
As my brother told his story, tears ran down his face, and he had to try hard just to get the words out. And both of the men in this story had that problem at the taco stand as they discovered they both had a “coincidental” connection to the tragedy. Reynolds brought the news that Ryan has passed away from his injuries. David brought the comfort that the young man was in the presence of one of God's messengers as he was dying, and perhaps God had made one last invitation to draw Ryan into His Kingdom. What an amazing development, that Reynolds would find David, a veritable human needle in a haystack, almost immediately, and tell him of his grief, and David would be able to tell him everything he saw, and give him the assurance, that even as the young man's life ebbed away, a servant of Christ was right there within minutes, praying for him.
If you do not believe, this was just a meaningless coincidence. If you do believe, it means everything.
As a believer, the thing that struck me, a fact we know but tend to forget, that God is always about the business of ushering all of us into and through this life. He is always there, from the beginning until the end.
The world would shrug and call all of this some kind of uncanny coincidence. But the “World” also says that we evolved after “spontaneous generation” (something never witnessed to date) from single-cell organisms and millions of subsequent fortuitous mutations. The world clings to the idea that all life forms hinge on accidental serendipity, while little in Nature suggests it. The world does not want to perceive the beauty and magnificence and designs of God. So Man's science offers a different explanation for life and its origins which also requires a ton of faith. Each person has to choose for himself, which paradigm of chance he prefers. But those two Christian men at the taco stand knew that they were not experiencing a coincidence, but a string of God's directions which had led them to a little miracle in front of Paddy O'Neill's Irish Pub and Grill.
We don't know what David said while praying that night. We don't know whether Ryan could even hear him or not. But we know that God could. And sadly, we don't have any clue about the young man's spiritual position when he passed. He was taken to the hospital where they learned his spinal chord had been snapped and was irreparable. Whether or not he had heard anything, when he was put on the stretcher, whatever connection Ryan had to this life had probably already been terminated. It's not one of those stories with a miraculous happy ending. Only a story of God's omnipresent faithfulness. But maybe, just maybe He was able to get through those human organic limitations and appeal to Ryan's soul, still very much intact, as David prayed.
But we Christians do know this much, and it means a lot: No matter who you are, or what you have done, no matter what you are doing or what time of day it is, God is reaching for you till your very last breath. There is always a messenger. God never gives up. He loves all of us and wants us with him for eternity, but ultimately, he allows all of us to make that choice for ourselves. Jesus just said flatly, “Seek and you will find, knock and the door will be opened, ask and it will be granted...” (my paraphrase). If you want to find God you will. If you want to find excuses not to, you can find them too.
And for those of us who cherish these and many other words of Jesus, who claimed to be Heaven's gatekeeper, our Faith grows exponentially when we see God's hand in our daily lives, in this case piles of stunning “coincidences” which tell us He is there, behind the scenes, making all things fall together with the same genius He used in all of Creation.
Our trip to South Dakota turned out to be a very special time for our family. Many friends and relations gathered there from all corners of the country. We were able to reconnect, and spend time together. We saw Mount Rushmore, and other beautiful sites unique to the area. I was able to climb a mountain there with my family, one called Mount Teddy Roosevelt, and once more imagine myself having lived as a Rocky Mountain pioneer. Such experiences have fed my art career for over half a century. By coming thousands of miles from every direction, each of us; cousins, siblings, ex-wives, grandparents, great aunts, parents and children, saw how much the others revered each member of our family. It was an outstanding expression of love and compassion, as we traveled so far to celebrate Ryan's life and also to “pay our last respects.” And yet none of it would ever have happened unless... Ryan crashed to his death that night. And Reynolds would never have discovered that chain of coincidences or experienced that glimpse into the intense involvement of God in every aspect of our lives. Our trip to South Dakota was for all practical purposes, a once-in-a-lifetime family reunion. It was a sweet time, and a rare time when nearly everyone could attend, and one of the largest Cushman gatherings in memory. With God's help, it became Ryan's last gift to all of us.
