Miracle in Retrospect

One thing I am writing about in "Walking Between the Miracles" is something I call "Miracles in Retrospect." This is when we look back at a normal part of our lives and realize that it was really the hand of God in preparation for a future that we did not yet know but He did. Every time I realize another Miracle in Retrospect, I am awed at God's absolute majesty in one of those, "Aha" moments. Yesterday, held another one of those for me.

When I entered college, I did not move into a residence hall as most students do. I commuted from my parents home. They had only been living there about a year and I'd been in and out of the hospital, rather than in high school making friends, for the majority of that year. In addition, I could not drive and was reliant on my parents for transportation to and from college. The combined result was that I had very few friends, I had little opportunity to make new college friends, and I wound up eating a lot of lunches alone in the college cafeteria.

One day, I saw another student sitting all alone at a long table near the cafeteria window, eating her lunch, and I walked over to her table. I asked if I could sit with her to also eat my lunch so we could both look like we were not eating alone. She was a transfer student to the school, also commuting without a car, and very happy to let me sit with her. We talked through lunch and then went our own ways, each of us expecting that we would never meet again. But God had different plans.

Several weeks later, Holly saw me as I was walking into the student union and she was walking out of it. She said hi to me and we chatted for a short bit. Another day, she was waiting for the city bus when I saw her and said hello. Accidental meetings continued to happen until we became friends.

Eventually, Holly married and moved to another State. A couple of years later, I married and moved to yet a different State. We exchanged Christmas greetings and emails for a while, pictures of new babies and so on, but we eventually drifted completely apart.

Years went by. My husband divorced me for his adultery and I moved home with my parents. My friend, Debbie, then talked me into joining Facebook to reconnect with old friends. One friend I looked up was Holly. It turns out that Holly is living back in the area where I now do! She is also divorced after many years of marriage.

We made a date and reconnected over, yes, lunch. Holly and I swapped stories of abuse and emotional abandonment. We both remarked on how similar our stories are. Since that day, we have met several times and always wind up spending a few minutes talking about our frustrations with the respective fathers of our children.

Sunday night, Holly surprize-messaged me. Her children are with their dad for the holidays and she wanted to meet. As we talked at lunch, Holly told me that I am one of only five in her multitude of friends that shares similar stories to hers and that she always feels spiritually renewed after exchanging frustrations with one of us. Personally, I have many Facebook friends with similar stories to mine, but have no local friends other than Holly to sit with me and share face-to-face. It is always revitalizing for me to meet with her.

Holly's comment was my "aha" moment of a Miracle in Retrospect. Twenty years ago, Holly and I met and became good friends via a series of "accidents." About one year ago (I think), we reconnected with similar stories of marital abuse and emotional abandonment. We are now each other's very scarce resource of local, comforting camaradarie. God knew we would one day need each other and He loved us both enough to not only put us together, but to keep bumping us into each other until we became friends.We befrinded each other in our youths so we could turn to each other for comfort during mid-life.

There is little else to say but, "Hallelujah!"