Have you noticed, as I have, that once you encounter an item or a word, that same thing crops up again and again?
Sometimes a Bible verse enters my mind, and the next thing I know the preacher mentions it in the sermon, or I see it displayed on a church marquee.
Why does that happen?
Lately, I have pondered terms common in today’s world that my grandparents never heard: email; bandwidth; bytes; unlimited talk, text, and data, etc.
If Grandma had ever heard me say dot com, she would have feared I had developed a speech impediment.
I wondered about new terms added to my grandparents’ vocabularies when electricity and telephones entered their lives.
For certain, they were quickly introduced to the terms electric bill and telephone bill.
Electricity brought to light (notice the pun) words like socket, light switch, meter reading, shock, outage, and plug and unplug.
Telephones made common such phrases as busy signal, party line, person-to-person, hang up, and please hold.
Such thoughts spiraled through my brain for several days as I vacuumed, pulled weeds, folded laundry, and waited for traffic lights to turn green.
Then, wouldn’t you know it? While reading a novel set in the 1920s, I found the following paragraph.
Life has all at once grown exponentially larger than I could have ever dreamed. Electricity, the automobile and now the telephone have made it clear that possibility is endless for an enterprising mind. I can only imagine what it must have felt like to navigate a flat earth only to discover its roundness. (Call Your Daughter Home by Deb Spera)
How is it that I happened to read a book that dealt with the exact thoughts I had been having?
My thinking about electricity and telephone terminology could not have inspired me to head to the library and check out a book that featured the introduction of electricity and telephones into American life.
Could it?
I mean, the title, Call Your Daughter Home, does not scream, “Electricity and telephones!”
I borrowed that library book because my sister Pam recommended it to me.
Pam and I are linked, genetically, of course, but also by a preference for the same kinds of books. And our minds do tend to run along the same paths.
For example, I can be thinking about Aunt Betty, and Pam will call me and say, “I talked to Aunt Betty this morning.”
Maybe Pam had been thinking about electricity and telephones, then read Call Your Daughter Home, figured I too had been thinking about electricity and telephones, and gave me a call to recommend that book.
I don’t know.
How do these things work?
The Happy Geranium 
This week we watched a movie with a character named Molly Bloom, which she explained was from a character in Circe. That evening I was reading a novel and a character referred to “Molly Bloom, a character in Circe.” What do I take from this? First, that Brian Robertson is a dork. But second, and almost as important, the world has apparently run out of new ideas and is vigorously recycling old ones (even the pandemic was a reboot from the early 20th century). Also I suspect my computer is tracking what I watch and recommending books to me that align with my viewing habits. In response, I am naming our pet gerbil Molly Bloom and contacting Orlando Bloom to see if he is related. To the character in Circe, not the gerbil.
From the rabbit hole, Mark
On Wed, Mar 17, 2021 at 8:43 AM The Happy Geranium wrote:
> dscales24 posted: ” Have you noticed, as I have, that once you encounter > an item or a word, that same thing crops up again and again? Sometimes a > Bible verse enters my mind, and the next thing I know the preacher mentions > it in the sermon, or I see it displayed on a chur” >
Mark, your response made perfect sense, and that worries me.
D
Sent from my iPhone
>
Very interesting. Sometimes, I have to remind myself that phone calls are different today. A cell phone is used more often in homes than a land line. Times changes. We can rest assured God’s love for us never changes and for that, I am thankful. 🙂
I agree, Melissa. Cell phones can be blessings. They can also be curses when they lead us to waste time on apps or take the place of honest, face-to-face, deep relationships with people we love. I am thankful God’s phone line is never too busy to accept a “call” from me.
Isn’t that funny how often that happens. I used to teach a ladies Bible class on Sunday mornings. So very often the lesson I taught would be the topic of the sermon. ❤️
That can be frustrating. But maybe God is using both you and the preacher to deliver a message the listeners need to hear!
You know, Debbie, I have noticed this phenomenon, but I had not given it a great deal of thought until I read your blog. Very interesting! This does happent to me quite a bit. 🙂
I have received interesting responses to this post. Maybe God uses these experiences at times to deliver messages He knows we need to hear! At other times, I guess we can just chalk them up to coincidence!
It’s neat when it happens with Bible verses. As if God is making sure I’m paying attention!
My mom lives across the country from me, but when I see her in person a couple times a year, it’s hilarious how often we’ll say the exact same thing at the same time in the same tone of voice. Great minds?
Yes, let’s attribute that to great minds thinking alike. I agree that God can use this phenomenon to get our attention. Thanks, Pearl, for reading and responding!
I enjoyed your article.
Thanks so much for reading and commenting!
I have been noticing the same thing. Elizabeth congregation called off services a few weeks ago because of road conditions during ice/snow, so Jake and I went to Crossroads they were studying same chapter as us only they were one chapter ahead of us. “Be of one mind” 😊
Yep. Quite a coincidence. I like the way you connected it to a Bible verse! Thanks for commenting, Jan.