God Loves ALL His Children -- including me!

"Coincidence is not an appropriate word for an omniscient God. He doesn't do things by coincidence but instead by divine design." - Elder Neal A. Maxwell (from his BYU Devotional address "Brim With Joy" given 1/26/1996)

One example:

Friday night was our Ward Temple night. I planned ahead and got us a babysitter booked on Tuesday. Unfortunately, I didn't get my backwards time planning correct (how you figure out what time to pick up the babysitter so you can get out the door on time to get to your destination in time), so we didn't make it into the 7 pm session with the rest of our ward (I didn't factor in the fact that the Temple is CROWDED on Friday nights). We got our cards for the 7:30 pm session and went to get ready. I arrived in the chapel before Ryan did; the front row was being reserved for people going through the Temple for the first time (I like sitting on the front row); the second row was pretty full as well, so I sat on the aisle of the third row. I was feeling quite grumpy that we weren't in the earlier session and we were going to miss out on the dessert get-together afterwards at the Englehorn's. I tried to read in 3 Nephi where Christ is in America to get my spirits lifted - it didn't work. I tried to focus on the hymns being played - I got distracted by the fact that a person wasn't playing them, the organ was playing by itself. I got annoyed when they removed half of the reserved cards from the front row, but I didn't want to move up there. So here I was, in the Temple, feeling grumpy about the situation and feeling annoyed that I even felt this way. A few minutes before we were to go to the Endowment room, a temple worker came up to us and asked if we were married. Then he asked if we'd be the witness couple. We said yes and moved up to the front row. A huge wave of relief came over me and I knew that God loves ME!

Another case to ponder:

My little brother stopped communicating with the family in August. No one heard from him. His cell phone was disconnected. He didn't reply to e-mail. When Dad sent him a letter to his apartment, it came back 'return to sender', with a forwarding address requested and it came back with a Kansas address. Well, two weeks ago, he called me. He needed some clarification on who he was supposed to give to for Christmas this year. (By the way, if you need a computer to randomly assign names for the members in your family to give gifts to, Ryan wrote a script that is pretty awesome!) I told him how much we were all worried about him, not knowing where he was, what he was doing, etc. He said he was doing much better now, but he wasn't ready to let us know what his location was or what he was doing. He wouldn't give me his phone number. He did say that he'd come to my house for Thanksgiving, since I'm hosting the Thanksgiving dinner this year. Mom and Dad were happy that I heard from him, but still worried about him. Well, last week, he called Mom and Shanda, Keturah, and others. He told Mom that the missionaries tracted him out and invited him to come back to church. I told Mom (and my little brother when he called me later in the week) that the missionaries finding him shouts to me that Heavenly Father really does care about each of his children and answers their prayers. I am sure that Mom and Dad prayed for him all the time, just like they do for the rest of us. They didn't know where he was, but Heavenly Father did, and He sent in members of His army to find him. And they did! It brings new meaning to the words in a prayer often heard to send the missionaries to find those who are 'pure in heart' and 'ready to listen and embrace the Gospel'.

Was it a coincidence that the missionaries tracted out my brother? Was it a coincidence that on the night that I needed a reminder of what is really important about my Temple service, we got asked to move to the front row, and serve as the witness couple? No. It is all a part of His divine design. He loves me AND He loves you, too!