|
Divine Serendipity
Two weeks ago I mentioned Divine
Serendipity and said I would talk about it in
another newsletter. This is that newsletter.
The word serendipity
was coined by Horace Walpole, a writer, politician, and the
4th Earl of Orford, in a letter he wrote to his friend
Horace Mann on January 28, 1754. It came from an ancient
Persian fairy tale called "The Three Princes of Serendip."
On their travels the princes were always accidentally
discovering something that when combined with something
else, also accidentally discovered, turned out to their
benefit—though the benefit might not be seen or received for
some time.
My definition of Divine
Serendipity, therefore, is when God brings
people, places, events, or things into your life that are
later—even many years later—combined with other people,
places, events, or things to benefit you or someone else.
Here are some of many from my own
life. In 1960 my family and I were living in
Caribou, Maine, which is 150 miles from nowhere. One day I
bought a magazine titled Writer's Digest,
published in Cincinnati, Ohio
(remember that magazine and city). Read through it and decided I would like to be a writer of some
kind. There was an ad in the magazine for Writer's Digest Correspondence
School for Writers (remember that school), so I
signed up for the course.
Finished only half of it, but on the basis of that got a job as a Technical Writer.
Couple of years later I read an article in Writer's Digest about writing greeting cards and decided I could write the funny one-liners,
then called Studio Cards. Sold my first one to Barker Greeting Card
Company in Cincinnati, Ohio; my second one to Hallmark.
Over the next couple of years my sales gradually increased,
and then I heard that Barker was looking
for an editor. Wrote to them, they flew me to
Cincinnati, hired
me, and we moved there in April 1966.
In August 1968 I put together a book titled The Greeting Card
Writer's Handbook and wrote to the editor of
Writer's Digest Magazine to see if she knew of a
publishing house that might publish it. Got a letter back
from WD's publisher, Dick Rosenthal, saying they would like to—which they
did.
A few months later Rosenthal wrote to me again and asked
if I would be interested in being Director of guess what
school for writers—you guessed it,
Writer's Digest Correspondence School for Writers.
I said I would, took a bunch of tests, and was Director for
eight years.
What does all this have to do
with God and Divine Serendipity? Two final
guesses. Guess where I was working when the Holy Spirit
began to bring people and things into my life that would
lead me to Christ—you guessed it. And guess where I
was working when in less than 20 minutes Jesus healed me of
an injured back—a slipped disk, which I had suffered with for nearly ten
years—you guessed it again.
Going back to Caribou, Maine
and later, do you think it was blind coincidences that I
took a writing course from Writer's
Digest Correspondence School for Writers in Cincinnati,
Ohio; that I sold my first greeting card to a card
company in Cincinnati, and
later became editor of that same company and moved to Cincinnati; and that
Writer's Digest
Magazine published my book on greeting cards, and
then hired me as Director of the writing school whose course
I took in Caribou?
Consider this. It was at the school in Cincinnati that
the Holy Spirit began to move people and things into my life
that led me to Christ, and it was on a walk from my office
on 12th Street to 5th Street that Christ healed me of 10
years of back pain. Further, we built a house just outside
Cincinnati, and a few months later a Nazarene church was
built around the corner from us. It was in that church that my wife, Beverlee and I were
saved, and it was because of the prayers of one of the
members
that Beverlee was healed of
crippling rheumatoid arthritis and lupus.
Neither of us yet
had these physical problems when we lived in Caribou, Maine. But both of us are absolutely
certain that through a series of serendipitous events
that started there, God brought us to Cincinnati, Ohio,
to save us, heal us, and use us.
Child of God,
there are no coincidences in the lives of those called by God, there are
only God-incidences!
Divine Serendipity—God
bringing people, places, things, and events into your life
that He will at some time combine with other (often
seemingly unrelated) people, places, things, and events that
will benefit you or someone else.
How many serendipitous events has God worked in your
life—before and after you received Christ?
"And we know that
all things work together for good to those who love
God, to those who are the called according to His purpose"
(Romans 8:28).
See you at the house!
Harold J. Chadwick |
