My earliest experience or memory of a ‘Divine Appointment’ was when I was a child. I wasn’t a Christian nor was I born into a Christian family. However, as I recall my earliest experiences of the connections that came about in my life which eventually brought me into salvation, I can see that God was working in my life, drawing me to Himself, long before I ever knew Him.
One such connection was with a teacher in my primary school. She was a music teacher and being very musically inclined, I ended up in her recorder group at the age of 10 alongside 3 of my class mates. I recall her asking me to help her with some music during a lunch break and as I followed her into the school hall and watched her rummaging around, I stood in front of the piano and mentioned to her that I had started having piano lessons, to which she replied that she’d like to hear me play what I had learned. I can’t recall what I played, but at the time I was touched by her interest in me.
My parents and siblings never listened to me play the piano throughout the years I lived at home, nor did they seem to show any interest in my progress. I may have played a little for the random friend who visited our home but, generally, once I was in the front room of our house, the door was shut and I was left to practice on my own. Hence later in life I became a nervous, stumbling performer when it came to playing the piano in public.
One Wednesday evening, I attended my piano lesson with an old lady who lived about 10 doors away from our house, whose name was Mrs Honey. As I walked into her front room a few minutes too early for my lesson, I recognised the lady sitting at the piano. It was my primary school music teacher, Mrs Dawes, who had recently married. It was the first time I had ever experienced a ‘connection’ of this kind. I also noticed a wedding photograph of her on Mrs Honey’s piano, showing the two of them engaged in interesting conversation. Mrs Dawes left and as I sat down at the piano, I told Mrs Honey that she was my music teacher at school. The experience left a significant impression on me.
A few weeks later, as I was walking home from school, I saw a young woman cycling down my road. As she cycled past me, not noticing me, I turned and watched her as she cycled away. It was Mrs Dawes. I had been having piano lessons with Mrs Honey for about a year at this time.
I left primary school and went to a Grammar School in a different area.
At the age of 18, I went through a difficult period when I seemed to have few friends, struggled with exams and I became very depressed as family relationships became very strained and distant. We had no relatives in the UK and so we grew up in a somewhat isolated environment. I recalled thinking about Mrs Dawes and her kindness in asking me to play the piano for her and for some strange reason I decided to go back to my primary school to see if I could contact her as I was very lonely.
One day, I decided to visit my primary school to see if I could find out if Mrs Dawes still taught there. I asked to see the Headmistress, who remembered me. She told me Mrs Dawes had left the school after having a second child and so I asked her if I could have her address so I could write to her, to which she happily agreed. I went home and decided to write to Mrs Dawes as I was searching for answers to the problems in life that I was facing. To my great delight she wrote back to me and at the end of her letter she wrote one sentence which caught my attention:
“Vasantha, If There Is One Thing I’d Like To Pass On To You, It’s The Opportunity To Seek Jesus”.
Within a few days of receiving her letter I visited Mrs Dawes at her home and the spent the next few months writing to her as I had many issues which I was struggling with. It was clear that she was a Christian although I had no inkling of this at school, as she always responded to my questions with references to scripture. At the end of that year, I visited her for a second time and when I asked her for something to read, she gave me her husband’s Bible.
I went home and in my bedroom I asked Jesus into my life, having never been told that this was how to pray the prayer of salvation. I just knew. I never told Mrs Dawes that I had committed my life to Christ but some years later she told me she realised I had given my life to Christ as it was clear from my letters to her.
That Divine Appointment, at the age of 10 in the school hall, would change my life forever. I have had many others since and even repeated what Mrs Dawes wrote to me, when I have had the opportunity to do share with those who don’t know Christ. Since then, as my relationship with God has matured, I have been acutely aware of God’s Divine connections even if they have not necessarily resulted in long term friendships.
God broods over our lives even when we are not aware of His presence. Genesis Chapter 1 verse 2 : ‘And The Spirit Of God Hovered/Brooded Over The Surface Of The Waters’ NLT.
The Holy Spirit hovers over our lives from the day we are born, longing to draw us into relationship with the Heavenly Father who created us.
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