Last week a strange thing happened. My novel The Book of Ruth: A Tale of Great Loves had just come out. At our provincial center we sign up to do the Mass readings. For the Friday reading someone had erased her name, and no one signed to replace her. Although I had recently read, I volunteered to do the First Reading again. The next day before Mass I looked up the reading on my computer in order to prepare it. To my surprise the reading of the day was the story of Ruth and Naomi! Before Mass the sacristan informed the priest that I had written a book about Ruth. Before beginning the liturgy, he commented on that fact to the gathered worshipers. Again before giving the homily he mentioned it again. His homily was all about Ruth and Naomi. Sisters in the congregation assumed that I had deliberately planned to do the reading on Ruth. But that wasn’t the case. It was another instance of God winking at me.

God enjoys surprising us every once and awhile. In my book A Love Affair with God I explain,

“God continually orchestrates “lovebursts” for you, surprises that take your breath away and prove that he loves you. You need a piece of information, and a book falls open to the exact page that bears it. You lack money to cover a certain expense, and the identical amount unexpectedly comes to you. A stranger you encounter at an airport gives you good advice. A valuable item you lost shows up in the oddest place. Walking through a forest, you “chance” upon two fawns resting in the grass. You glance out the window just in time to see a shooting star. To your delight, a special plant that you assumed was dead displays green shoots. God “winks” at you more often than you know. You might record such magical moments in your journal before they fade from your memory.”

One of our Sisters who works in Rome just happened to be here in the USA last week for meetings when, tragically, her brother drowned. She credited her presence as God’s providence.

My most striking experience of God stepping in to surprise us probably occurred as I played the piano in our Village dining room. A woman, a widow, came in from outside and asked, “Were you just playing “Ah, Sweet Mystery of Life?” “Yes,” I said. “Would you please play that again? It was our wedding song.” She stood by the piano as I played the song. Then with tear-filled eyes she said, “Today is my husband’s birthday.” What a gift to her! Now that “coincidence” was a real sweet mystery of life.

Then there was the time I was touring Washington, D.C., with my family. I still wore the Notre Dame habit. On the observation floor of the Washington Monument, a woman approached me and said, “Are you Kathy Glavich from Cleveland?” She was my good friend from Hodge School whom I hadn’t seen or been in touch with for almost twenty-five years…since the sixth grade. We renewed our friendship and began meeting for lunch annually…back in Cleveland.

The Bible overflows with “coincidences.” In Ruth’s case, she just happens to glean in the field of Boaz, who just happens to be related to her father-in-law.

• When have you witnessed God acting in your life in a surprising way?