Every have something bizarre happen because the timing was just right?

I did when I was 16 years old.

Mom and I were eating at my grandparents’ house. Mamaw had fixed one of my favorite desserts, cherry pie. I remember raking in a big delicious bite. Naturally, I swallowed, or better yet, I tried to swallow.

You see, my bite of cherry pie had just reached what I call the point of no return in my throat. You know what I’m talking about. That’s where gravity has taken over and your food is too far down your esophagus to get it back up.

That’s when the incredible timing comes in.

At that exact same instant, I did something I had never done before: I hiccupped and sneezed at the same time. Think about it. What are the chances of my swallowing, sneezing, and hiccupping happening all at once?

To be honest, it hurt a little because I tried to stop my sneeze and hiccup so my cherry pie could finish its trip down to my stomach without me getting choked. I was only partially successful. While I didn’t get choked, not all of my food made it down to my stomach. Some of it was forced up into the other direction. I know because I felt it travel upward.

“Cherry pie just went into my nose!” I announced.

“There’s no way you can have cherry pie in your nose,” my mom answered. Her disbelief was so obvious. My grandparents laughed and shook their heads.

To be honest, their response really surprised me. If you have read any of my articles and/or books, you are probably aware that strange things just seem to happen to me. My family of all people should have realized that.

There was only one thing left for me to do.

“I’ll show you then.” I grabbed a clean paper napkin off of the table and blew my nose into it.

“See?” I proudly held out my napkin that was now splattered with pink cherry pie filling. “I told you cherry pie went into my nose.”

My family was speechless. Finally Mamaw said, “Well…I swannie. I don’t reckon I’ve ever seen anything like that before.”

“Beloved, think it not strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, as though some strange things happened to you:” 1 Peter 4:12. (KJV)

No, I have never experienced the fiery trial as referred to in the above verse, but the strange things that happen to me have felt like trials at times, especially when I was younger.

Let me tell you, it’s not been easy being the Klutz who stumbles all the time or being the person who others shake their heads at in disbelief. I don’t know how many times over my life I have asked others: “Does stuff like these happen to you too?” Their answer is usually: “Ah…no.”

For a while, I considered my strange occurrences to be nothing more than bad luck and something I would have to deal with. Then I had an epiphany. First, luck is an illusion. Second, all of my happenings were and are God ordained.

“And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.” Romans 8:28 (KJV)

I have learned to be grateful for my strange happenings and enjoy them. Not only do they make me stand out from others, but I can use them to teach about the Lord. Now that is a special honor and blessing I will whole heartedly accept.

Looking back now, I wish I had kept that cherry pie from my nose filled napkin and framed it. I would write on the bottom, “See how the Lord has truly blessed me!”