It’s Too Remarkable to Be Just a Coincidence

“At the end of the seven years, the woman returned from the land of the Philistines and went to appeal to the king for her house and her land. Now the king was talking to Gehazi, the servant of the man of God, and had said, ‘Tell me about all the great things Elisha has done.’ Just as Gehazi was telling the king how Elisha had restored the dead to life, the woman whose son Elisha had brought back to life came to appeal to the king for her house and land. Gehazi said, ‘My lord the king, this is the woman, and this is her son whom Elisha restored to life.’”  (2 Kings 8:3–5, NIV–Modern Translation)

When my youngest daughter was putting together a 300-piece puzzle, I joined her once to help. Before starting, Ye-eun had already sorted the 300 pieces into several groups — by color, according to the picture on the box. She also gathered all the edge pieces together in one pile.

We began by finding the four corner pieces and laying them on the desk. Then we connected all the sides, forming the frame of the puzzle. After that, we began filling in the inside areas, one color section at a time. Why did we put the puzzle together in this way? Because that’s the easiest method.

We had done puzzles before — even tried 500- and 1,000-piece ones — but they were too hard to finish. Every time, we started with the corners and edges. We never once began from the middle, because that method is too difficult. So we always worked in the way we knew best.

I began to think of life as a puzzle. Suppose the life span of a person is 100 years — then my life’s puzzle would have 100 pieces. Looking back on my roughly 50 years, I thought about how the first 50 pieces have come together.

From attending Sanghyun Kindergarten and graduating elementary school in Korea, to following my parents to America and studying from middle school through my first year of college — in May of that year, at a college retreat, through John 6:1–15, I received assurance of salvation and God’s call to become a pastor.

From there, I went through seminary, was licensed as a minister, met my wife at that licensing service, married her in the Lord, and held our first child, Jooyoung, in my arms as she slept — only to see her pass away soon after. Then, through God’s grace, He gave us three more children — Dylan, Yeri, and Yeeun — showing us not only His holy love (through Jooyoung) but also His restoring love (through Dylan) and abundant love (through Yeri), leading me to confess, “God is love.”

Later, during my nearly three years of study and ministry in Korea, at the Pastors’ Renewal Conference, the Lord once again spoke to me through Matthew 16:18. Holding onto that promise, I returned to America to serve as senior pastor of Victory Presbyterian Church. Looking back, I realized that, just as Ye-eun and I had built the puzzle by first completing its frame, it was the Lord — not me — who had been setting in place the framework of my life’s puzzle.

The key frame pieces of my life’s puzzle are these four events:

1. The assurance of salvation and calling to ministry at the college retreat through John 6:1–15.

2. God’s sovereign guidance in meeting my wife and forming one body in Christ.

3. Experiencing the death of our first child, Jooyoung, and learning through it the surpassing love of God that is greater than even life itself (Psalm 63:1; the hymn “My Savior’s Love”).

4. Receiving God’s promise from Matthew 16:18 in Korea and being called back to pastor Victory Presbyterian Church.

None of these were things I could have accomplished or “fit together” on my own. Each was humanly impossible — yet the Lord made them possible, thus completing the strong framework of my life’s puzzle, which He continues to build even now.

When I look back over more than 50 years of life, I see countless times when God arranged the puzzle pieces in ways far beyond my thoughts, expectations, or plans — leaving me amazed. From a human point of view, some might call these events “coincidences,” but from the perspective of faith, they were clearly the sovereign workings of God.

Since dedicating my life to ministry, I have witnessed innumerable such moments. Each time, I could not help but feel deeply that God is truly alive — for only He can perform such wondrous works.

In 2 Kings 8:3–5, we meet the woman whose son the prophet Elisha had once raised from the dead — the Shunammite woman. The Bible calls her a “prominent woman” (v.8). She recognized Elisha as a “holy man of God” and, whenever he passed by, invited him for a meal and even built a small room for him on the roof with a bed, table, chair, and lamp (v.10).

Out of gratitude, Elisha wanted to do something for her. When his servant Gehazi noted that she had no son and her husband was old, Elisha prophesied that by the same time next year she would embrace a son — and she did.

Yet, one day, the child suddenly died on her lap. Deeply distressed, the woman sought Elisha, who prayed to God and stretched himself upon the child — mouth to mouth, eyes to eyes, hands to hands — until the boy’s body grew warm and he came back to life.

Later, when famine struck the land, Elisha told the Shunammite woman to leave with her family and live wherever she could, for the Lord had decreed seven years of famine. She obeyed, went to live in Philistine territory, and returned after the famine ended to appeal to the king for her house and land.

And here comes the astonishing providence of God: “At that very moment,” the king was speaking with Gehazi, asking him to tell about Elisha’s miracles. Gehazi was just telling the king about the very miracle of Elisha raising the Shunammite woman’s son — when that same woman walked in to plead her case before the king!

Isn’t that too remarkable to be just a coincidence? How could it be that, right when she returned after seven years and went before the king, he happened to be talking with Gehazi? And why was he asking about Elisha’s miracles at that precise moment? And of all the miracles Elisha had performed, why was Gehazi telling that story — the story of her son? Could all this really be coincidence? Hardly!

Then Gehazi exclaimed, “My lord the king, this is the woman, and this is her son whom Elisha restored to life!” The king confirmed her story, and not only restored her property but also ordered that all the produce of her land during the seven years she was gone be repaid to her.

Can you imagine her astonishment? To regain her home and land would already have been reason for great joy — but to be repaid for all the harvests of seven years as well! Surely this was no accident but the marvelous providence of God.

In God’s sovereignty, there is no such thing as coincidence. Through all these things, God fulfilled His good, pleasing, and perfect will (Romans 12:2). For “in all things God works for the good of those who love Him, who have been called according to His purpose” (Romans 8:28).

The “prominent woman” thus came to taste and see that the Lord is good (Psalm 34:8).

In closing, as we assemble the puzzle of our lives, we often try to use the easiest methods we know. Yet we eventually face pieces that don’t seem to fit — hardships and sorrows we cannot understand. Like Ye-eun and me working on the puzzle frame, we try to build our life’s framework with our own strength. But God often leads us to the point of helplessness, where we can do nothing but look to Him.

Then, in His sovereign providence, He places even the hardest pieces — the painful and mysterious ones — exactly where they belong, allowing us to experience His presence more deeply. As we learn to trust Him more, we hand over not only the difficult parts of life but also the seemingly easy ones. And in doing so, we begin to witness those “remarkable things that are too wonderful to be coincidences.”

Each time, we are humbled and led to worship — to praise the God who works wondrously in our lives.

The greatest and most astonishing of all God’s works is this: that in the great puzzle of humanity, the unsolvable problem of eternal death was conquered when God sent His only Son, Jesus Christ, to die on the cross — bringing us from death to eternal life.

Thus, we are not merely like the Shunammite’s son who was raised to physical life, but like those who have been rescued from eternal death to eternal life.

“He who did not spare His own Son, but gave Him up for us all — how will He not also, along with Him, graciously give us all things?”
(Romans 8:32, NIV–Modern Translation)

Believing not in coincidence, but in God’s sovereignty,

Rev. James Kim
(May 1, 2018 – With gratitude to the God who counted even a sinner like me precious and gave His only Son, Jesus, on the cross to grant me the grace of salvation.)