There are those who use the word coincidence for things they can’t explain. I, on the other hand, do not believe in coincidences, and have often found myself using the terminology (given to me by a friend), “Godincidence”. That empty parking place that opens up for me, right by the door in the pouring rain, is assuredly a “Godincidence”, especially when I don’t have an umbrella.
One such Godincidence for me, happened while my husband and I worked feverishly to tear down an old barn. He did the tearing down while I waited for instruction on how I could best help make his job easier. In short, I was a glorified tool retriever, and on a few occasions, I was promoted to metal loader and stacker. Woohoo!
On day three, the final day of roof removal, I had my routine down. My husband would drive to the edge of a field, while I hopped out of the truck, opened the gate, and then closed the gate, after my husband pulled through it. We’d gained permission from the owner of the decaying barn, to remove and keep the old rusted metal roofing at no charge. The only request was that we had to make certain to keep the gate closed in case there were any cattle in the field. Although we’d never seen any signs of cattle, we did as instructed, by the owner of that barn.
On that final day, with our truck loaded down, I closed the gate for the last time before hopping into the truck. It was then that I first smelled, and then noticed cow manure smeared all over the back right passenger tire. It wasn’t just splattered on the tire, it was as if a cow getting even from being tipped over at some point in his life, had taken a personal dislike to my husband’s back passenger tire.
I curiously mentioned the mess to my husband, who then climbed out of the driver’s seat and walked to my side of the truck to inspect the tire. Both of us looked at each other puzzled. Not only had we not spotted a single cow the entire three days of working on the roof removal, but neither had we noticed or smelled, one single pile of cow manure. Yet, there it was, cow manure all over my husband’s right, passenger tire.
As strange as it seemed, my husband and I never gave it a second thought. At least not until he pulled into a carwash that was on our way home. He wanted to hose off the tire while the manure was still fresh, so to speak. At some point, during the hosing off of that tire, my husband motioned for me to get out of the truck. Curious by his quizzical look, I did as he’d instructed, and then followed his gaze to a very large nail protruding from the side of that once smelly tire. You could faintly hear the sound of air escaping.
Coincidence or Godincidence? I vote for the latter. How else do you explain that only one out of four tires were affected by a cow’s recycled dinner? I am certain that God meant for us to find that nail in our tire. Otherwise, we could have ended up on the side of the road, with a flat tire and a truck loaded down with metal. Worse, we could have wrecked, but we didn’t and that is no coincidence. That is definitely what I call a Godincidence.