Coincidence? Crosscheck It!

I was sitting at the front desk at my church when one of the staff members asked me if I wanted a bag of bracelets. If I didn’t want them she was going to throw them away. They were rubber bracelets that said, “Jesus changes everything.” Why would anyone want to throw these away? Of course, I would love to take them! Why wouldn’t I want something that says, “Jesus changes everything”? He does! I couldn’t understand why they may have ended up in the trash. This is a church, right? We love Jesus here, right? He did and does change everything right? Yes, I want them. I wear them to this day with honor. 

Fast forward a few months. My oldest daughter and I had been wearing these bracelets since that first day. But this day was different. This day was a special day. It was July 2nd, the launch day for Crosscheck It. 

There we were, at our first street vendor event in Tarpon Springs, FL. The first one Tarpon had since COVID first hit. I knew God had told me to make sure I was ready for it. We pushed hard and gave the rest to God.  

We had quite a few people stop and some made purchases. About halfway through the event, a couple walked by and hesitated. They were both all tatted up, the wife had long beautiful blonde dreads. My husband approached them and said hello.  The man said to Rich, “I know what truth is. What do you think truth is? What is Crosscheck It about?” Rich thought he was in for a debate. He dug his heels in, stood his ground and said, “no BS, just Jesus.” They looked at each other and then looked back at Rich and threw their hands in the air. All the walls Rich had felt fell down in an instant. He had just found a brother and sister in Christ. The wife ran over to me and gave me a huge hug. Who does that to a complete stranger? When Jesus is in the mix, He changes everything. As the conversation progressed she told me about the ministry she and her husband started. She was about to pull a bracelet off of her wrist and give it to me since she didn’t have extras on her. When I saw the bracelet I stopped her. I told her to look at my wrist. You guessed it! The same bracelets that were going to be thrown out months earlier. She couldn’t believe it and asked me how I came to have them. 

God had an incredible plan. Had those bracelets not almost been thrown out I wouldn’t have had the opportunity to take them home. We may have still made the connection to this couple that day but it made a much deeper impact seeing how God had gone before this moment and sealed it with something as simple as a rubber bracelet.

1 Thessalonians 5:18 came alive to me in a whole new way that day. Paul writes, “Be thankful in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you who belong to Christ Jesus.” (emphasis mine)

I needed to be thankful on the first day I got the bracelets, not angry they almost ended up in the trash.

This beautiful couple stopped in the middle of crowds, blessed us, grabbed our hands, and prayed over us. My children were there to witness this divine moment. We’ve talked about it at length and as a parent, there is nothing better than seeing your own children have an incredible experience with Jehovah God. They will never forget how He showed His power and love. He loves us so much He will use complete strangers to bless us. God showed up and let us know we were doing exactly what He had told us to do.

God is good, all the time. And all the time, God is good.

Crosscheck coincidences.