Sometimes, we need a little encouragement.
We need to know that we are not working on projects that simply seemed like good ideas to us at the time, but that we’re part of something bigger.
That’s where ‘God winks’ come in.
At the moment, I’m reading a book about prayer. Yesterday, on a train headed into the city, I read the following section:
Jesus modelled friendship in the little ways He related to the disciples through something a friend of ours likes to call “God winks.” …. God’s playfulness, joy, and personality are evident….
Ryan Skoog in ‘Lead with Prayer’ by Skoog, Greer and Doolittle, FaithWords (Hatchette Book Group), 2024, page 11.
The writer goes on to give examples of things that have happened in his own life. This includes the sighting of an eagle on occasions when he was seeking God. He writes:
As soon as we said, “Amen,” a bald eagle flew right over our heads and called out. For us, it was not a superstitious sign but a little wink from heaven, reminiscent of the playfulness of Christ with his disciples….
[And some years later….]
I asked the Lord, “Are we going to make it through this?” At that moment a bald eagle swooped closely over my head. I’d made that same walk more than a thousand times and never seen an eagle, especially not one soaring a few feet above my head. It was the wink again. It was the love of a Father, not only encouraging but kind … even playful.
Ryan Skoog in ‘Lead with Prayer’ by Skoog, Greer and Doolittle, FaithWords (Hatchette Book Group), 2024, page 12.
A Prayer Walk
I was reading this book while heading across the city for a prayer walk at the ‘Himalayan Momo Festival.’ (‘Momos’ are dumplings.) Along the way, however, a whole run of little things went wrong. I’ll spare you the details, but it was discouraging.
Was this prayer walk just my own ‘good idea’? And did it matter, even if it was? Probably not.
Finally I arrived, and as I did, the heavens opened. Rain pelted down. People scurried for cover. I did one prayerful circuit of the venue under my umbrella and decided that I’d had enough.
Just as I walked away from the venue, the rain stopped, the sun broke through and a gorgeous rainbow spanned half the sky.
Am I reading too much into this natural phenomenon? I know that the rainbow wasn’t put there just for me. But dare I believe that God pre-ordained the timing of the whole day so that I’d see the rainbow when I did?
I interpreted this as a ‘God wink.’ He was with me in this venture. I turned around and headed back for another soggy circuit. Before long, however, the live entertainment started up, people emerged and the afternoon picked up significantly.
I appreciate the ‘God wink’ very much.
A coincidence?
I tossed and turned in my bed last night, annoying the dear old cat. Perhaps as a result of the prayer walk, I was focused again on my current research. I was mulling over the fact that chances of finding enough interviewees for my research are not good.
I had hoped to have done a slew of interviews at conferences earlier this year. Instead, I did only three. I need to do a minimum of 16 interviews. I dream of doing 25, which is the target my supervisor set. But the criteria for suitable interviewees are narrow.
What should I do? Can I adapt my research question? Was I crazy to even think that my networks would be adequate for such a task?
That was last night. Today, after church, a saint asked me about my research. He is praying for me to find enough interviewees, he said.
I was gobsmacked.
How did he know to pray this way?
It turns out that a prayer request to this end was included in the weekly prayer points for our church community for this week. That list of prayer points comes out by email every Sunday morning. I generally don’t do emails on Sunday, so hadn’t yet seen it.
What are the chances that this prayer request would be sent out to our whole church community on the very day when this matter weighed heavily on my mind?
Surely this is a ‘God wink.’
A rainbow
I checked some baking in the oven late this afternoon. From the corner of my eye, I glimpsed vibrant colour outside the kitchen window.
Dashing out the front door, grabbing my phone camera on the way, I stood in our shared driveway and admired another brilliant rainbow. This was my second rainbow in as many days.
What are the chances that I’d happen to see the rainbow as it appeared? If I hadn’t been in the kitchen and therefore near the window facing that way, I’d have missed it.
Again, I know that this phenomenon is bigger than just me. The rainbow wasn’t put there simply to encourage me. But after the ‘coincidence’ of the rainbow during the prayer walk yesterday, the unsettled evening of worry about finding interviewees followed by the reassurance of prayers today, I took this sighting as another ‘God wink.’
Pushing on
Tomorrow my ‘day of rest’ will be over. It will be time for me to use the connections I have to try and find people who can contribute to my research. Ultimately, however, the success and the usefulness of this research project is not on my shoulders.
The One who gave the rainbow as a sign of his covenant with all creation (Genesis 9:12-17) sees each of us. He knows what is going on in our little worlds. He is involved in our lives.
He doesn’t make life easy for us. The New Testament especially teaches us that we must strive and strain, push through discouragement and troubles, and all the time, keep our eye on the goal, which is Jesus.
But sometimes, just sometimes, he ‘winks’ at us in encouragement. It’s not simply our own good ideas that we’re working on, but we are part of something much bigger.
And that encourages me to keep pushing on.
