You are on your knees. You are praying fervently to God. You are asking Him to send you something or someone to help you out of a fix. Maybe you need money. Perhaps a loved one is ill and you need the specialist doctor to be available and affordable. Perhaps you are looking for a job and you want someone on the interview panel to believe in you enough to take a chance on you even though you do not have the experience stated in the job advert. You just need to get your foot into the door.

“Please God, let them trust me “, you pray.

Then you sit next to a total stranger on the bus, and it turns out his sister is a specialist doctor, and she does some pro bono work if the circumstances warrant it. Or it turns out that they are hiring at his organisation and he is so impressed by the conversation you have had that he goes and puts in a good word for you. Just like that.

Now let’s revisit this.

You are sitting on a bus next to a stranger and you notice that they are in an earnest SMS conversation. You don’t mean to pry, but you happen to notice some words, and you understand that they are looking for a specialist doctor. For some reason, even if it is not your business, you volunteer information about your sister.

Are you not God’s answer to that person’s prayer?

My daughter asked me, when she was 4, whether I had ever seen God. I said no, I hadn’t. “Then how do you know He is there?” she probed.

I told her what I had been told when I asked the same question. I asked her to look at the leaves on a tree. Did she notice that they were moving?

“Yes”, she responded.

“Can you see who is moving them?” I asked.

“No”, she replied.

“Well, I said, it is God”.

“No Mummy”, she said. “It’s the wind”.

“Can you see the wind?”

She shook her head, and I went on to say that God works in the same way, you cannot see Him but you can see His work.

And sometimes He works through you.

I am not talking about being religious. This is simply about everyday opportunities to do good that defies explanation, that expects no reward.

Did a stranger do something that was the answer to your prayer? Please share.