Recently, I shared a story with my church family about an unexpected blessing.  For context, in a few months I will be serving as a Resident Chaplain at a nearby veteran’s medical center.  The Residency is a full-time commitment, which will demand some adjustments to my daily schedule.  These pending adjustments set the stage for my story.

For years, I have exercised on the same elliptical at a local gym around 6:00am, showered, then traveled to my office.  With my upcoming Residency, and added distance to the medical center, I was facing the prospect of moving my gym time to 5:00am, which would have left me fatigued as my day progressed. 

I contemplated various solutions, including the purchase of a used elliptical.  One morning, I arrived at the gym and discovered a sign on my favorite machine that read, “Free to a good home!”  My heart jumped and I quickly called the contact number at the bottom of the sign.  The next day my name was on a note affixed to the elliptical letting others know it belonged to me!  Not only did I have an answer to my exercise dilemma, but it came in the form of the same machine I used daily.

Some call these kinds of events “windfalls”.  The word “windfall” originated in the fifteenth century when observers equated good fortune with a piece of fruit that falls from a tree after being blown loose by the wind.  After hearing my story, however, several members of my church family told me this was a “God-thing”, meaning that God has orchestrated everything for my welfare and His glory.

It did seem like God’s hand had moved.  My elliptical blessing reminded me of Jochebed, and the amazing series of events which permitted her to care for her infant son, Moses.  Pharaoh tried to kill Moses, along with other male babies born to Hebrew mothers.  But Jochebed placed him in a basket and hid him among bulrushes in the Nile.  That’s where he was discovered by Pharaoh’s daughter when she came to bathe.  Moses’ sister, Miriam, was watching from a distance, ran to the daughter and offered to find “a Hebrew woman” as a nurse for the child.  The daughter accepted Miriam’s offer, and she retrieved her mother.  Apparently unaware of Jochebed’s identity, Pharaoh’s daughter not only accepted her as Moses’ nurse, but paid her as well!

It had to be a “God-thing”.

I will confess that I am often too slow to declare God’s involvement in my circumstances.  It isn’t that I don’t believe He moves in my life.  In fact, I believe every breath I take is a gift from God.  It’s just that I have heard a number of people make a “God-thing” claim before examining the evidence, and occasionally, this is used to manipulate others for personal gain.   

So was my elliptical event a “God thing?”  Was God showing me favor because of my decision to serve American veterans, or as a means of demonstrating His glory to those who know my situation?  What if the elliptical breaks and becomes irreparable in the middle of my Residency?  Will that mean God was testing my faith with the gym elliptical, and that He had something else in mind I never received because of my impatience?  Does God even care about ellipticals?

Regardless of the possibilities, I am compelled to praise God.  I praise Him because He may have been blessing me for a specific reason, and I don’t want to overlook His goodness.  I praise Him because the circumstances and timing surrounding my gift from the gym were perfect in respect to my need.  I praise Him because I have been able to tell my story and strengthen the faith of others. And I praise Him, because in this one case, I have decided that “Yes”, it is a God-thing.

I have also concluded a windfall is a God-thing, literally and figuratively.  When the Lord led Ezekiel to a valley of bones in a vision, he told him to prophesy that the bones reattach themselves in the form of bodies.  Then he told him to invite breath into the bodies with these words: “Come, breath, from the four winds and breathe into these slain, that they may live.’” (Ezekiel 37:9b) There is no windfall without the God who sends the wind.

As I have aged, I have become more vocal about God’s blessings and quicker to give Him credit for circumstances in my life.  Am I perfect in my interpretation of events?  I doubt it.  But since I am an imperfect person, I have decided to err more on the side of God-things.  The praise is His no matter what, and I would rather give God credit for events He didn’t intentionally orchestrate than miss the opportunity to praise Him for the ones He did. 

Meanwhile, I am going to enjoy my time on one very fine used elliptical.  And as a result of my blessings, I will have more energy for my Residency.  Sounds like a God-thing to me.