A local Holmes County man and his 4 year old son died tragically this week in a father/son fishing/boating accident. What a tragedy! I didn’t know them, but I know some of the family. A preacher of one the family members asked me about the details of a drowning story I wrote about in my book, Showing Up.

Here is the story as told by Rev. David Terhune of Marion, Indiana:
I was on my way up the elevator to the fifth floor jail chapel wondering what I was going to speak about. Chaplain Brady had just called me an hour ago to fill in for a preacher who cancelled. 

I thought of a tragedy that happened here in Marion County twenty years ago. Four children had been playing near a lake the week before Christmas (that’s why I thought of this story- today was Dec. 21). Their mother had warned them not to go out on the ice because it had not been cold enough, but as children do, they wandered out on the ice and one of them broke through. His brother tried to rescue him, but he broke through the ice, as did his sister. The only one left on the shore was the 7 year old brother who ran for help. By the time the rescuers got there, all three children had drowned. I officiated the saddest funeral of my life; three children, all from one family, the day before Christmas. If only they had heeded their mother’s warning.

So, I told that story to the inmates at that chapel and then admonished them: “You are in trouble now because you did not heed the warnings. When are you going to listen? It’s too late for those children, but it’s not too late for you. You can still be rescued. Come to Jesus.” 

Ten or so of them raised their hands to make commitments. When the chapel was over, everyone left exept one prisoner who stayed seated on the back row with his head down, weeping. The guards were nudging him, but he continued to weep. The officer gave me a look that said, “Come tell this man to go, or we will.”

I went over and sat next to him.

“Are you the man who preached the funeral for those poor little children twenty years ago?” he asked.

“Yes, I am.”

He raised his head for the first time and looked at me.

“I was that 7 year old boy,” he said.

By now I was weeping, the guards were weeping. One officer went over and looked out the window so it wouldn’t be noticed that he was weeping.

I asked the boy, “What are you doing in here?” He said, “I got picked up for speeding. The officer ran a background check and said there is a warrant out for my arrest for failure to pay child support. I knew it was a mistake because I have no children. I’m not married. But now I see that God wanted me to be here to hear a message from the man who preached at my brothers’ and sister’s funeral. It was not a mistake.

Does this mean that I will get to see them again if I commit my life to Jesus?”

“Yes, you will see them again if you follow Jesus,” I said.

Rev. Terhune concludes: Now I understand why God would have a volunteer cancel; why Chaplain Brady thought to call me; why a mistake in the police computer system held an innocent man in jail; why this twenty year old tragedy came to my mind as I came up the elevator… God orchestrated all of these events to create a divine appointment to heal a wounded little boy’s heart who has felt guilty and grief for 20 years for a tragedy that was not his fault.

AND! God give him eternal life.

Coincidence? No. Divine appointment.