In my many years of writing about people in the crafts and home-business community, I've often come across stories of how an individual's life or work has been influenced or totally changed by meeting just one person or hearing someone utter a few well-chosen words.

"Delight yourself in the Lord and he will give you
 the desires of your heart." (Psa.37:4)

This may not happen as quickly as you think it should, but never doubt that God’s timing is infinitely better than our own, and He is the master at working things together for good. He knows when to close this door so that door can open. He knows which people we need in our life, and which ones He doesn’t want there.

When my husband died early in 2005, I had only one female friend in my area, and she lived almost an hour away. I really needed to meet new people locally and build a new social life for myself as a widow, and God provided--first by using His "Divine Tether" to draw me to the one church out of hundreds in my community that was exactly right for me. After making some new friends there, I volunteered to start a support group for widows in the church, and several of us now meet once a month for tea in someone’s home or for lunch in a restaurant.

Prior to that, however, God gave me a family I could be part of, just fifteen minutes from my home. I can't be with my sisters very often, as they both live in California, but unlike many other widows, I have not had to spend holidays alone since my husband died. This particular "divine connection" has not only given me a wonderful girlfriend thirty years my junior, but a sweet adopted granddaughter, Tasha, who not only shares my March birthday and loves Bengal tigers as much as I do, but who, at the age of eight, has already written her first book and received an award for being one of the best young authors in her school.

(For an example of how God works to bring people together, read "The Story of a New Friend" on my personal domain.)

My latest divine connection has been Kirk Svihla, a young man who helped me transform my whole yard in the summer of 2007 and got me excited about landscaping and gardening. (Surprise: Kirk and I are now talking about writing a landscaping how-to book together.)

Of course I met Kirk "accidentally," and I should not have been surprised (though I was) when I learned that he is a Christian with an educational background in theology. Of course any landscaper could have done the things I wanted to do in the yard, but God knew I couldn’t afford a commercial landscaper or gardener.

Count Your Divine Connections

I’d like to challenge you now to look back on your life and try to see all the people God has placed in your path to date. Think of the most special people in your life and remember how you came to meet them. For example, was it your doing that you met your spouse or the best friend you’ve ever had in life, or did God plant those people in your life either directly, or through someone else or some unique circumstance? I met my husband through another musician I’d been introduced to by my music teacher. I met my best friend through someone who used to give me rides to work. Harry and I were married for nearly 44 years, and I still have that best friend in my life. Talk about divine connections!

Do you have a successful business because of some book you once read, or a workshop you attended where you met a person who changed the direction of your life? Or do you have a great job because you "accidentally" found an ad in a paper someone left on the train or bus, or you met someone who "just happened" to work at that place and got you in the door? If things have happened to you through the years that were things you really wanted, don’t doubt for a moment that God Himself orchestrated the whole scenario. The thing that blew me away after I’d been born again was realizing that God had been giving me blessings decades before I gave my life to Him, proving, I think, that if God has His eye on you, He will patiently wait for you to come to him, no matter how long it takes.

Once you begin to think in the above terms, it becomes very easy to see all the divine connections God has made in your life. Never doubt for a moment that God has already got the people you need all lined up, ready to put them in your path when He thinks you’re ready for them. And never doubt, either, that YOU are someone God has used before, and will use again, to be a connector to others who are in need of God’s touch in their life.

Your Life Impacts Those Around You

Always remember how important YOU are in God's scheme of things--more important than you may realize. If you’ve never given thought before to the significance of your life, and how God may be using you as He makes His divine connections, consider these thought-provoking words from Charles Swindoll, one of my favorite pastor-teachers and Christian authors. (His "Insight For Living" radio broadcast is aired daily worldwide and it has been a source of encouragement for me through the years.)