Can two contrasting answers to a one answer question both be right?

At church yesterday an Indian guy called Peter shared his testimony of how he was adopted by American parents after his father had had to put him and his brother up for adoption after his mother died [two of the six children were put up for adoption as the father thought they would get a better life that way].

Before that his American parents-to-be had already had four children of their own, and due to medical reasons could not have any more, but the mom believed that she had two more children. But she wanted the dad to come to the same decision. One night he went to a church meeting that she was supposed to go to in which a missionary from India spoke and he came home and announced to his wife that he thought they had the capacity for two more children. So they started the process of investigation.

During that time two different sets of people were praying for them and believed God told them the ages of their children. The one couple told them their children would be 6 and 8 years old and the second couple told them they would be 11 and 13 years old. [Now this is going to be a tough one for God to make happen, right? Wrong.] Peter and his brother were 6 and 8 years old when their American parents met them for the first time… and they were 11 and 13 when they arrived in Americaland to be joined to their new family.

DOES THAT NOT BLOW YOU AWAY? It really should. The ‘nah, coincidence’ people are going to have a tough time with that one. And it would have been great to be able to hear the parent’s account of the story because before you know the end to it, you hear the different ages and your initial thought is, ‘Hm, i wonder which one got it wrong.’ But no, God is faithful and it is stories like this which just help prove it. We serve the God of the absolutely impossible.

This reminds me of an ex convict marching up to a national leader and declaring to him, “Let my people go!” Or a nation marching around a city seven times and blowing some musical instruments and shouting and seeing the walls collapse on the city. It reminds me of a shepherd boy with a catty and five little stones facing down a giant of a military man or another little kid with a severely reduced army taking on an army, described as many as the grains of sand on a beach,  with 300 people armed with torches and trumpets.

And so on… and it is not the miracle that is as attractive as the love and power of an involved God that it points towards. Something about trusting in the Lord, with all of our hearts, and leaning not on our own understanding. In all our ways acknowledging Him and watching as He makes our paths straight. [paraphrase of Proverbs 3.5-6]