“When we are in tune with God’s will, we can see these coincidences as what they really are: our windows into the divine.” ~ The Awakening Heart, page 224

It was January 6, 2003. I was the last person chosen for the jury when the lawyers on one side suddenly changed their minds and removed me from the roster. My seat was filled by another juror, and the judge said the rest of us were free to go. I decided to go visit my friend Sandy in the hospital. Sandy and I had known each other for only two years, but we had become very close friends in this short time.

Sandy had been in the hospital for 10 days, since her amniotic fluid had ruptured when she was only 22 weeks along in her pregnancy. The situation for the baby was critical, and I had been coming by the hospital to visit as often as I could. I felt an “inner knowing” that it was important that I be there to comfort and encourage Sandy during this difficult time.

Each day that I visited Sandy, I would bring copies of Betty’s books and would pray before I entered her room for God to give me the words and passages Sandy most needed to hear that day. Sandy told me often that our visits together and the passages I read were very helpful to her.

When I arrived at the hospital on this day, Sandy’s husband came out to tell me the heartbreaking news: Sandy had gone into labor. I went to a waiting room with Sandy’s parents until a nurse came in to tell us that little “Ava Clair” had been born. The nurse informed us of what we already knew: Ava wasn’t expected to live for long, as she had been born so prematurely.

Sandy and her husband asked us to come into the room to meet little Ava. Just before we entered the room, Sandy’s parents stopped, their grief at the situation nearly overwhelming each of them. As I went into the room, I felt a tremendous sense of awe and love for this little girl who would be with us only briefly but whose loving presence, I knew, would forever touch our lives.

We each had a chance to hold this angel baby before she quietly returned to her heavenly Home. I felt tremendously blessed to have been present for the life and passing of this generous spirit and precious daughter of my friend.

Later that evening when I returned home, I spoke to my mom on the phone. I told her how I was scheduled to be at jury duty that day but that instead I was present for the brief life of Sandy’s baby girl. I told my mom how difficult it had been for Sandy’s parents to enter the birthing room once we knew the baby had been born. “Sandy’s mom, Cookie, was very upset,” I said. “Sandy told me once that her mom had lost two children of her own when she was our age.”

There was a long pause. My mom asked me what Cookie’s real name was. When I told her, she was silent for several moments. Then she went on to tell me, “Kristen, I know Sandy’s mother…”

“Back before you were born, Sandy’s mom and I taught school together in a town about an hour from here. I helped Sandy’s mom through losing her first two children prematurely.”

My mom and I had each provided comfort and encouragement to a mother and daughter, in the same situation, more than 30 years apart. None of us had known until that day about the interconnection of our lives, our shared purposes and friendships. This came as confirmation of what my heart already knew – that my presence at Sandy’s side through this experience was “no coincidence”, but rather part of God’s loving and mysterious plan all along.

Incidentally, my daughter Katie and Sandy’s other daughter, Maddie, are both in the third grade and consider each other “best friends”, too. Sandy and her husband recently became the parents of a healthy baby boy named Will. I am now expecting another baby myself. Perhaps our babies will have a friendship made in heaven, too, that has yet to unfold…