God is here

The amazing story of Missi Meely and her boss, Laurie Thompson, is told in the July 2007 Reader’s Digest.

After a stressful day in June 2006, Missi and several exhausted co-workers stopped by their manager’s office.

A long day of cold calling had left the 25-year-old sales representative and her friends drained. They knew their supportive boss would understand, and they were right.

The conversation soon drifted to more personal matters. Missi confided that she was unsure if she wanted children, but knew it would disappoint her parents.

Laurie asked, “Why, are you an only child?”

Missi explained that her parents wanted grandchildren, then, almost as an afterthought added, “I was adopted.”

When Laurie asked if she knew anything about her biological parents, Missi shared what little she knew. Her biological mother had been only 16 when she was born on April 14, 1981. She believed her birth father was likely a loser because he collected beer cans. She had been raised by wonderful parents and had never felt the need to know more.

After the women left the office, Laurie kept replaying the conversation.

The next day she accompanied Missi on her morning sales calls and then took her young protégé to lunch.

After some small talk she said, “There’s something I have to tell you and it’s major … It is about our talk yesterday. If I have a hunch about who your biological parents were, would you want to know?”

Missi replied, “Well yeah.”

“Are you sure?” asked Laurie, reminding her that she had never felt a need to know.

After only a moment Missi said, “Tell me.”

Laurie paused and slowly said, “I think it might be me and my husband.”

An eventual check of sealed records confirmed she was right. Laurie was, in fact, Missi’s biological mother. Was their remarkable reunion a coincidence or could God have reunited them after 25 years?

One of my favorite books of the Bible is Esther.

It is unique because God is never mentioned. Despite that fact, those who read the story can clearly see that God was at work.

Albert Einstein got it right when he once said, “Coincidence is God’s way of remaining anonymous.”

I am convinced God does some of his most amazing work when we are totally unaware of his presence. It is only later that we realize how involved he was in the seemingly routine events of our lives.

You and I will frequently not see how God is at work in and around us.

Missi Meely, Laurie Thompson and Esther would all agree that life’s seemingly unplanned events are actually anything but random. Just because you are unaware of God’s presence does not mean he is not intimately involved in your life.

Tim Richards grew up in Fairdealing and previously served as associate pastor of Pilgrim’s Rest Church there. He currently serves as a pastor on the staff of Concord Church in South County St. Louis.