A devotional book I read as a teen-ager (sadly, I can’t remember the name of it) started off with the story from John 21 about how the disciples went fishing after Jesus’ death, and how He appeared in His resurrected body on the shore asking if they had caught anything. They had fished through the night and caught nothing. He told them to cast their net on the other side, and they did so and caught so many fish they couldn’t draw the net in. John, the “disciple whom Jesus loved,” recognized then, “It is the Lord.” The devotional went on to encourage us to recognize the hand of God in our daily lives.

For some reason that particular lesson is all that I can specifically remember from that book, but it has stayed with me for years. I hate the little quip that “Coincidences are God’s way of remaining anonymous” because God is not in the business of remaining anonymous! He wants people to see His actions, influence, and provision.

Earlier this week I heard a story of  brother and sister in our church. The sister was known as a very slow driver, and in one outing with her brother he was getting after her about going faster. At a stop light she decided to tease him by just puttering along as slowly as she could. She was in a double turn lane, and the car beside her shot ahead — and got hit by someone running the red light. What was meant as a bit of fun was used to protect them.!

But its not just in the more dramatic episodes where He is at work and wants us to recognize Him, and He doesn’t want just His children to recognize Him. The Father “maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust” (Matthew 5:45b).

And it’s not just in the good things that happen where we see His hand. He allows illnesses, accidents, losses, loneliness and such for many different reasons, all designed to focus our attention on Him, to draw us closer to Him, to meet some need in our life or to manifest His glory.

I am the LORD, and there is none else, there is no God beside me: I girded thee, though thou hast not known me: That they may know from the rising of the sun, and from the west, that there is none beside me. I am the LORD, and there is none else. Isaiah 45:5-6.

For she did not know that I gave her corn, and wine, and oil, and multiplied her silver and gold, which they prepared for Baal. Hosea 2:8.

That they may know that this is thy hand; that thou, LORD, hast done it. Psalm 109:27.

A week after that first Easter, Thomas earned his nickname “Doubting Thomas” when he did not believe that Jesus had actually risen from the dead. The above video is a wonderfully written perspective of Thomas’s doubts and Jesus’s answers.

John 20: ¹⁹Then the same day at evening, being the first day of the week, when the doors were shut where the disciples were assembled for fear of the Jews, came Jesus and stood in the midst, and saith unto them, Peace be unto you.

²⁰And when he had so said, he shewed unto them his hands and his side. Then were the disciples glad, when they saw the LORD.

²¹Then said Jesus to them again, Peace be unto you: as my Father hath sent me, even so send I you.

²²And when he had said this, he breathed on them, and saith unto them, Receive ye the Holy Ghost:

²³Whose soever sins ye remit, they are remitted unto them; and whose soever sins ye retain, they are retained.

²⁴But Thomas, one of the twelve, called Didymus, was not with them when Jesus came.

²⁵The other disciples therefore said unto him, We have seen the LORD. But he said unto them, Except I shall see in his hands the print of the nails, and put my finger into the print of the nails, and thrust my hand into his side, I will not believe.

²⁶And after eight days again his disciples were within, and Thomas with them: then came Jesus, the doors being shut, and stood in the midst, and said, Peace be unto you.

²⁷Then saith he to Thomas, Reach hither thy finger, and behold my hands; and reach hither thy hand, and thrust it into my side: and be not faithless, but believing.

²⁸And Thomas answered and said unto him, My LORD and my God.

²⁹Jesus saith unto him, Thomas, because thou hast seen me, thou hast believed: blessed are they that have not seen, and yet have believed.

³⁰And many other signs truly did Jesus in the presence of his disciples, which are not written in this book:

³¹But these are written, that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing ye might have life through his name.

You may have wealth, a comfortable lifestyle, and all you would ever need of this world’s goods, but do you have the Son?

You may have good friends and good times, but do you have the Son?

You may have religious ritual, but do you have the Son?

You may have a clear conscience, but do you have the Son?

You may have respectability, but do you have the Son?

Your good deeds may outweigh your bad deeds, but do you have the Son?

And this is the record, that God hath given to us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. He that hath the Son hath life; and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life. I John 5:11-12.

He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life: and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him. John 3:36.

For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved. He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. John 3:16-19