Last week, a person came into my life who had been missing from it for 50 years. The chances of that happening were one in a million. A whole handful of things had to click in place at just the right time to make it work.

Some would call it all a case of amazing coincidence.

Some would see the moving finger of God.

I tend to agree with writer SQuire Rushnell. There's really no difference.

For Rushnell, coincidence is just God "winking at you" — like a grandfather winking at a child sitting at the far end of the dinner table.

"Go back to those times in your life when you came to a crossroads," he says. "Make a list of coincidences and answered prayers. This is what you'll discover: When there were multiple paths that your life could have followed, there were always signposts of reassurance — 'godwinks' of personal communication — to you and no one else on earth."

He quotes the Jewish philosopher Martin Buber: "All journeys have secret destinations of which the traveler is unaware."

Let's add to the thought by quoting Emma Bull: "Coincidence is the word we use when we can't see the levers and pulleys."

Some 20 years ago, when I was just getting to know my wife, Carol, I grabbed a postcard from a rack while I was on a trip and sent it to her. It was a random choice — a postcard of a drive-in theater from the 1960s, jammed with cars, while Charlton Heston, as Moses, boomed and blustered on the screen. I sent it as a light-hearted "hello." I didn't know at the time how deeply the movie "The Ten Commandments" had affected her when she was younger.

And I didn't know the drive-in theater pictured was in Northern Utah.

I just sent the thing.

But for her, it was like getting a calling card from the great beyond.

And it changed everything.

I think, what if I'd sent her a postcard of four dogs playing poker?

Who knows whose wife she'd be today?

In his book "When God Winks at You," Rushnell shares dozens of such stories from the lives of people. He says just the journey his book had to make to get into bookstores was filled with far too many coincidences to be a coincidence.

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He also says that "winks from God" go both ways. They not only allow God a chance to dip into our lives, but they give those who benefit from "coincidence" a chance to reflect — a time out from all their going and doing — to think for a moment about what Paul Tillich called "ultimate concerns."

And anything that gets human beings looking at the "big picture" instead of what's in front of their noses sounds a lot like something God would do.

As for my newfound, rediscovered friend, I'm anxious to see what other coincidences are in store.

e-mail: jerjohn@desnews.com

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