Last week, I wrote about three “God-incidences” that happened to me on recent flights. This week, I want to write about one more.

It happened the week before Christmas.

I was flying to New York to see a Broadway show. I had pulled out a script to read on the flight of a new show I’ll be working on this coming year. I was going through the script page by page, making notes on my phone about parts that made me laugh, made me cry, or maybe needed some attention.

Halfway through the flight, the guy sitting across the aisle from me asked what I was reading. I told him it was a script that a friend and I were working on for an upcoming movie project.

He was curious because he was a cinematographer, on his way to New York to meet his team and see some locations for a new movie he’s filming!

He said it was unusual to see someone reading an actual paper script these days. I told him it was, but that I really wanted to read it through “the old-fashioned way.” There’s something about reading a script on paper that just makes it more real.

As we were talking, the woman sitting next to him jumped into the conversation. She said, “Sorry to jump in, but I was overhearing that you both work on movies. A film crew was just filming a show at my mom’s house in New Jersey for three weeks, so I know all the things that you guys are talking about!”

The “film crew” that was at her house wasn’t just any film crew. It was a crew headed by one of the hottest writers and producers in the U.S. right now. I tried hard not to “fangirl” and ask her a million questions. The three of us chatted away for the rest of our flight.

The cinematographer said how unusual it was that we were all sitting there in that row on that plane.

The woman commented, “And I wasn’t supposed to be on this flight.”

The cinematographer said, “I wasn’t either.”

I added, “And neither was I!”

“Serendipity!” said the cinematographer.

“Or something more,” I thought.

I looked at the script in my hands. I had printed it out just before my trip to read on the plane, and it was that script that drew the guy’s attention, then drew the woman into the conversation.

The cinematographer had been so intrigued by the script, and by the show as I described it. He had already asked for my contact information so we could stay in touch.

I looked at the script in my hands again. I asked the cinematographer, “Would you like to read the script?” He said, “I’d love to.” I asked, “Would you like to have this paper copy?” He said, “I’d love it!”

I took out a pen, wrote his name on it, wrote “Merry Christmas!” then signed it. Beneath my signature, I wrote, “Serendipity?!?” Then I handed it to him.

Suddenly, I was “unscripted.” Just like this whole trip. Or was it?

I don’t know what will happen with the cinematographer, or the woman who had one of the hottest producers in the U.S. in her house, or with my own movie project. But what I sensed was God’s peace. God’s timing. God’s hand, moving in my life, and in each of theirs.

Sometimes those “little nudges” (“go to New York,” “take this flight,” “print out the script,” “read it on the plane”) are more than just hunches. Sometimes they’re setups for “God-incidences,” moments when we can see God at work in our lives.

This doesn’t just happen to me. It happens to others. It’s probably happened to you.

When I got home from my trip, I read a story in the Bible where it happened to a man named Simeon. I was reading the end of the Christmas story in Luke chapter 2 where, eight days after Jesus’ birth, Joseph and Mary took Him to the temple in Jerusalem to be dedicated to the Lord.

The moment they walked into the temple, an elderly man named Simeon walked into the temple, too. God had previously promised him that one day, in his lifetime, he would see the Messiah with his own eyes.

And that day, the Bible says Simeon had been “moved by the Spirit” to go to the temple. He entered it at the very same moment as Joseph and Mary. When he saw baby Jesus, he knew this was “the One.” He said,

“Now I can die content, for Your promise to me has been fulfilled. With my own eyes I have seen Your Word, the Savior you sent into the world” (Luke 2:29-31, TPT).

Like Simeon in the Bible, I felt God’s peace. I felt His presence. I felt I was in the right place at the right time.

I’ll leave the rest in His hands.

Love,

Eric Elder writes for page, stage & screen to glorify God’s name so Christ may be seen! Use this link to subscribe or unsubscribe.