Picture Of Two Lives

This morning, I sat and talked to Mary and Rachel, cousins who are nieces of Dave and Sally. The talk turned to Rachel's serious relationship with a young man whose family has intertwined with hers for several generations and who she has known since early childhood. I asked if there were any pictures of them together as little ones and Rachel thinks there must be, she just hasn't run across them yet. Below, reprinted from June 8, 2010 is an amazing story of coincidence/fate/providence, depending on your religious vantage point!

Maybe I'm just a sucker for these kind of romantic stories. Just two days ago, my entry was about a couple marrying this weekend, born on the same day in the same hospital as their mothers shared a room. (See Meant To Be from June 6.) Then this afternoon, a similar story caught my eye. A Florida couple became acquainted at work as adults, became romantically involved, and got engaged. Right before the wedding, Alex and Donna Voutsinas were going through old pictures. Donna shows Alex a snapshot of her with her family at Disneyworld from thirty years ago. As Alex looks at the photo, he makes a startling discovery; in the background, walking by pushing a stroller, is Alex's father....with Alex riding in the carriage! Looking at his family album showed his father indeed wearing that same outfit the same day. Even more stunning is that the two children were living in different countries: Alex's family resided in Montreal, Canada while Donna's family were Floridians. Donna says in retrospect, she's happy Alex asked her to be his bride before they knew about the Disneyworld encounter as children. That way, he isn't just going through with it because it's their fate! Either way, the two are now married and that three decades old Polaroid is a footnote.

What fascinates me about the story of Alex and Donna is the randomness of it.... or not. The odds of this happening are just astronomical, which I tell my students is not the definition of a miracle. Circumstances like this seem so overwhelmingly unlikely that we believe they could never happen, although there is nothing miraculous about unrelated people being in a public place at the same time and sharing a piece of film. The absurdity to us comes in the connection a generation later. None of us knows for sure how the Lord works exactly in our lives and what we pass off as normal becomes pivotal with the vantage point of time. If Donna and Alex had not almost accidentally seen the background figure in the picture, there is no story and they are just an average couple. I constantly pray for the Lord to give me something to write about and often what I end up with in the evening is something I was not aware of in the morning. Maybe I just needed to pen this entry today and someone needed to be encouraged by it and so the Voustinas discovered their historical link and I saw it on the Yahoo website. Or, it's just random. Christians believe in the intricacies of the Father's will, even though I admit it's a baffling subject to me. I do pray that Alex and Donna have a wonderful marriage and now, you are free to start re-examining your childhood scrapbooks!
Applicable quote of the day:
"We create our lives a thought at a time. And sometimes, it comes down to changing a thought such as "Why did this happen to me?" into "There is a divine plan and there is a reason for this, and my choice is to create the most positive reaction I can.''
Dee Wallace Stone

Click here for an article and news video about Donna and Alex and their amazing story! http://www.wesh.com/entertainment/23830238/detail.html

God bless,
Steve
Luke 18:1
http://www.hawleybooks.com/
E-mail me at steve@hawleybooks.com