Disconnected

 September 13, 2023

It’s often been interesting to me how seemingly disconnected events can come together to create something completely new. How would counseling at Odosagih Bible Club Camp in 1966 and sitting in a college classroom two years later to watch a movie on mental institutions possibly be connected? And what impact could those two events have today? Well, I’m about to tell you. But first, the story of Esther from the Bible.

Esther was a beautiful young orphaned Jewish girl who was born in exile in Persia somewhere around 480 BC. When was rounded up for the king’s harem, her guardian cousin Mordecai kept a close eye on her even after she became queen. Already we have a remarkable set of coincidences. Haman, a man descended from one of the traditional enemies of the Jews had been promoted to near second in command in the kingdom, and was fuming because Mordecai  refused to give him homage. So he shrewdly manipulated the king into condemning all the Jewish people to death, not knowing that Esther herself was Jewish. He had an enormous gallows built on which to hang Mordecai.

That very night, the king had insomnia and asked for some court records to be read to him to try to lull him back to sleep. Instead, he learned from the records that Mordecai had foiled an assassination plot against the king, but had never been rewarded. In the morning, he was trying to figure out how to reward him when Haman entered the room. The king asked how to honor someone, and Haman, thinking there was no one the king would want to honor more than he himself, made a suggestion. The king sent Haman to publicly honor Mordecai, his sworn enemy. Things were beginning to fall apart. 

A young Jewish girl whose cousin foiled an assassination plot, a sleepless night and some dull court records…all this and more were threads woven together to accomplish God’s purposes and deliver his people.

Counseling at Bible Club camp, watching a movie on mental institutions—how could they possibly be connected? Well, Esther Sampson was the Bible Club director for that camp, and also roommate to a certain young lady who sat down next to me as the movie began. “Hi. Remember me?” she asked.

“Nope,” I answered. This young lady insisted that her roommate had earlier introduced us, a claim I still dispute. What is not in dispute is that seemingly unconnected events can indeed come together for divine purposes. More than fifty years later, those disconnected events that came together that night still reverberate with the harmony of God’s orchestrated plan. Children were born, and grandchildren; people came to Christ and were taught the faith. The highs and lows of life have been woven together into a tapestry no one could have predicted. It has been woven by God’s own hand, the tapestry of my life, and it is very good.