Where have I seen God today?

I read today about a teacher who suggests that her students keep a “Where have I seen God today?” journal. (She teaches in a Christian school.) I think it’s a great idea and a great question, because we all need to remind ourselves to look around and appreciate the many ways in which God intervenes in our lives to bless us and watch over us each and every day.

A verse that I often share with pre-believers and new believers is James 1:17, which says “Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows.”

Believing this is a matter of faith, because it is not possible to “prove” to a non-believer that the blessings we experience are blessings from God and not “coincidences” or some kind of “good luck”.

Let me tell you a few stories:

A few years ago, when I was living in London in the UK, I was scheduled to attend a job interview in a different city on a particular day. The weather forecast for the entire week was for snow, with the heaviest snow and “severe train disruptions” reserved for the very day I was due to travel. I almost cancelled the interview because of fears of being stranded in some strange place with no trains running, but was prompted by the Holy Spirit not to. The day arrived and it was the only day in the whole week when it didn’t snow. (I got the job, by the way.) Coincidence? Or God’s blessing?

Another story: A couple of years ago, I was scheduled to teach a class in a computer lab. I had never used the lab before, and so went in a day early to check it out and make sure I could work everything. Just as I was staring at the instructor’s computer and thinking that I had no idea how to get past the login screen which required a password, someone poked her head into the room. She saw me looking at the screen and told me exactly what to do in order to gain access. Coincidence? Or was it God’s blessing that brought someone along at just the right time?

I choose to believe that these were God’s blessings. Can I prove it? No I can’t, just as I cannot prove that God is at work when I manage to find an empty parking space in a car park crowded with circling cars, or when I receive an sms with an encouraging message from a friend just when I am feeling particularly low, or when an unusual series of events completely out of my control results in my unexpectedly finding myself attending an amazing church service in a foreign country. I can’t prove that God is at work in all this, but think about this: To believe that these things happen by random chance takes as much faith as to believe that God’s hand is in them.

And this is the thing I don’t get: If both positions in fact require some measure of “faith”, why are so many people choosing the darker, emptier option?

I choose to believe that every good gift comes from God, and that “in Him we live and move and have our being” (Acts 17: 28).