It's A Small World After All...but let's keep things in perspective

Disney put music to the words we've all said at one time or another. I still remember how surprised I was to visit the Central Baptist Church in Kiev on a Sunday evening and run into an American (not a missionary) who had visited our church in Madeira a couple of years before. It was the first time for both of us to visit Ukraine, the only evening either of us would be at that church, etc., etc... "Small world," we said.

A few weeks ago I got a phone call from a lady who lives in Lisbon, saying that her nephew, who lives in Funchal, had accepted the gospel and was interested in attending our services. She had been witnessing to him for some years now. In the phone conversation, I asked where João Paulo Wagner works. (He´s known by his last name...common sense, I guess. João Paulo is a common enough name; even used by a Pope or two, but Wagners---here in Portugal anyway---will be very few and far between.) He happens to work in the same place as Roberto, one of the main men in our church. Obviously they know each other, although they don't work in direct contact. "Small world," I thought again. Then I thought again.

Funchal is NOT THAT SMALL: 150,000 population or so. What are the odds that Wagner and Roberto would be working in the same location? And as for the smallness of the world, let's be realistic. This world is a BIG place, unless you're comparing it to the sun or the galaxies. But we live our lives here on this planet and even with all the fast air travel, 6000 miles is still a long ways to go. I read about someone trying to rebuild in the south Louisiana area, who complained about having to drive 50 miles for a box of nails. Small and short, big and far --- it's all relative. Running into Phil in Kiev and both of us there on a one-night-stand sort of thing?! What I knew then only came home forcibly last week with the appearance of Wagner in our midst: how easily we play down God.

Isn't that, in fact, what we're doing when we explain away such "improbable coincidences"? If we're not careful, we'll be talking like evolutionists, who believe that everything happens by chance. If the world is small enough, anything can happen. I could run into an acquaintance halfway around the world from where either of us live; a new convert could be working in the same place as a faithful believer. Of course, if the field of options is too large, then you have to increase the time factor...a billion years here and there always comes in handy on the larger scale of events.

I see I have to stop selling God short by explaining that "it's a small world." I wonder if Disney would be open to a suggestion. I propose they change the words of the song to: "He's a big God, after all..."