God and Coincidence

On the 20th of May, 1940, the British Royal Navy began to hurriedly plan Operation Dynamo. Over the six weeks prior, British troops defending France and Belgium had been forced back to the coast and surrounded by the fierce German blitzkriegassault. The British Expeditionary Force of 390,000 soldiers had been swiftly dealt with, pressed on all sides until they had the faces to the enemy and their backs to the sea.

With the German Airforce briefly delayed, the British Royal Navy saw a glimmer of hope: they may be able to save 30,000 soldiers by evacuation. Operation Dynamo, better known at the Dunkirk Evacuation, was Britain’s last resort to salvage a truly catastrophic campaign.

As the German forces closed in on Dunkirk, the island of Great Britain prayed. King George VI called for a National Day of Prayer, leading the United Kingdom to call on a Higher Power in a time of dire, desperate, helpless need.

Over the next ten days, 338,226 soldiers were rescued from Dunkirk. The German soldiers were held off at other port cities; the marshy landscape was unsuitable for tanks to traverse; even the weather prohibited German planes from dive-bombing the soldiers on the French beach. In less than two weeks, more than ten times the estimated number of soldiers were rescued from an overcast beach on the west of France.

A modern historian describes this not as a miracle, but as, “a coming together of series of circumstances that played into the hand of Britain”. I am not even an amateur historian, but I fail to see how a coming together of certain circumstances does notnconstitute a miracle.

Some will call it coincidence that the terrain was not suitable for attack by ground, nor the sky suitable for terror by air. They will say coincidentally the nation prayed for their men and they were saved by over 800 vessels, from naval cruisers to yachts to trawlers. They will say that it just happened to work out in favour of Britain.

God has never been afraid of coincidence. God has never shied away from using ordinary, mundane circumstances to accomplish His will. God has never been limited by chance, or fate, or dumb luck.

We see in Acts 23 how God rescues His servant, Paul, from certain death at the hands of the Jewish mob incited against Him. God did not teleport Paul, though He could have. He did not blind the opponents, though that was within His rights. He did not give Paul superhuman strength (à la Samson), though He had proven that ability hundreds of years before. Instead, we see how God uses ordinary, everyday happenings to further His purpose.

12 The next morning some Jews formed a conspiracy and bound themselves with an oath not to eat or drink until they had killed Paul. 13 More than forty men were involved in this plot. 14 They went to the chief priests and the elders and said, “We have taken a solemn oath not to eat anything until we have killed Paul. 15 Now then, you and the Sanhedrin petition the commander to bring him before you on the pretext of wanting more accurate information about his case. We are ready to kill him before he gets here.”

16 But when the son of Paul’s sister heard of this plot, he went into the barracks and told Paul.

This is not the plot of an action movie. Our hero, imprisoned and in danger, does not lead a daring escape through the winding streets of Jerusalem. We don’t see fistfights and acrobatics as Paul evades his would-be murderers. We don’t see any of that because God was at work.

This also isn’t a miracle that would cause a stir. There is no water being walked on; there is no loaf of bread being shared amongst thousands of people; there is no resurrection from the dead. It is such a minor detail that one could read over it a hundred times and not see the divine and strategic hand of God. And yet, this minor detail of an imprisoned man’s nephew overhearing a sinister plot meant that Paul would be taken to Rome safely.

On the way to Rome, he demonstrated God’s power and favour by surviving a shipwreck along with the entire Roman crew, by brushing off a deadly snake bite, and by healing the sick.

Once in Rome, Paul continued to influence the early church by writing several letters, including Ephesians, Colossians, and Philippians. These letters became books of the Bible and have continued to encourage and strengthen the church thousands of years later.

All these events hinged on one coincidence: Paul’s nephew overheard a conversation and had the guts to speak up about it.

It seems mundane, un-momentous, silly even! And yet, this is the method God used to further His purposes for the early church. By not destroying the Jewish opposition, by not striking down the Roman soldiers in Jerusalem, God showed His way of escape can be infinitely more intricate than we expect.

Just as modern historians overlook the miracle of deliverance at Dunkirk, let us not miss God’s mundane, un-momentous, everyday miracles in our lives. The same God who moves mountains uses ordinary interactions to carry out His plans.

Let us not limit Him to miracles that we, in our flawed, human way, think display His power.

Perhaps most famous is the story of Esther, with the fateful words, “for such a time as this”. God works in such a time as this; He prepares you and me in unique ways for such a time as this. You may never have heard His voice aloud, but that does not mean He has not been patiently, lovingly directing you.

What at the time would have seemed nothing more than a coincidental turn of fate can now be understood for what it really was: God’s divine will. In our lives, we can look back and see how a coincidence became a lasting friendship, or a career, or an unforeseen opportunity.

It’s time to stop seeing coincidences and start seeing God’s providence.