Nonrandom accidents
Mystery: The Lord is invisible, but is present nearby. We do not see Him, but He sees us. It seems to us that everything around is happening spontaneously, and He contains the whole world with His Omnipotence and Wisdom.
Even in pre-Christian times, a person intuitively felt: there is Someone above us who supervises everything. So, one of the Delphic prophecies, uttered to the Spartans during the Peloponnesian war, read: "Ask or not ask - God is always present." So, whether we like it or not, there is God's providence in the world. He always participates in our life, regardless of our personal relationship to God.
Everyone knows about the hero of the novel by Daniel Defoe Robinson Crusoe, who lived on a desert island for many years. But few people know that this character had a very real prototype - the Scotsman Alexander Selkirk. In 1704, he went on a trip to the West Indies. It was a semi-pirate expedition, since the crew's task was to plunder the ships of hostile Spain (thank God that this was not done).
Acting as a navigator, Selkirk argued a lot with the captain about the route, wanted to raise a riot and as a result was landed on a desert island - with a small supply of food, weapons, clothing and even a Bible. He hoped that soon someone would take him, as ships from time to time came to the island for fresh water. However, for some reason this did not happen for more than four years. Selkirk believed that his lonely landing was completely pointless. In fact, she became the greatest blessing, since the ship on which he sailed was soon wrecked and almost no one survived. So for Selkirk, his loneliness was salvation, and at the same time, he, a former pirate, discovered the Bible: he read it every day while he was on the island.
St. John Chrysostom said: "Concerning about our salvation, the Lord shows us many such blessings that we do not even know about, often saves us from dangers and shows others mercies." That is, we do not even know how many times God has protected us from troubles and misfortunes. We do not notice the blessings of the Lord, while He tirelessly cares for us.
The providence of God is the living action of God in the world, it is the vigilant care of the Creator about His creation. Having created the world, the Lord did not forget about it, just like some birds forget their barely hatched chicks. But the Creator participates in our life, letting us in on what is important for us at this very moment, even if we did not understand this.
We met with Hieromonk Averkiy in the Lavra in 2008. As I remember now, he walked with a white corset around his neck and smiled happily. About the corset he modestly said: “Neck fracture”, but I did not ask him especially: you never know fractures in the world. Father Averky lived in the Lavra for seven months, then returned to Kazakhstan. And only recently, when I met him again, this is what he told about that accident.
Promotional video:
It was August 2008. We drove from Alma-Ata in a car. A layman was driving the car. And yet, in addition to Father Averky, there was a family of three in the cabin: a husband, a wife and their twelve-year-old daughter, who suffered from epilepsy. Everyone prayed for the healing of this girl, for the sake of this, they actually went - they wanted to visit holy places in Russia, bathe in holy springs.
When crossing the border of Kazakhstan with Russia, Father Averky moved forward, where the girl had been sitting before. Thus, he, without knowing it, saved the girl and took the brunt of the blow. He also read the Gospel of Matthew aloud, the Savior's Sermon on the Mount, read the 5th and 6th chapters, thought that it would be necessary to read the 7th chapter, but he got tired of the road and imperceptibly fell into a dream. And after that an accident happened - Father Averky seemed to have fallen somewhere, into some kind of darkness.
It turned out that a Kamaz was driving towards it, its trailer was disconnected and so it rushed from the oncoming lane straight into the forehead of the passenger car. The blow was so strong that half of the car was simply blown away. Father Averky received a broken neck and multiple wounds, a pin entered his neck next to the carotid artery. When he was pulled out of the car, he, being in a semi-shock state, thought that in such accidents, if vital organs are damaged, people can live by inertia for a few minutes. He also remembered the words: “In what I will find, in that I judge”, a thought flashed through his head: if he dies now, then what will the Lord find him in? He decided that it should be reading the Gospel, felt the book in his pocket, took it out, the crust of the Gospel had already been torn off. I opened it at the first available place. "And you will have joy and gladness" (Luke 1:14),- he read the very first words and perceived them as addressed personally to him. There was peace inside. And the blood ran down his face and dripped, droplets fell on the fields of the Gospel, but, as he later saw, none of them hit the sacred text.
Then they were all taken to the hospital. And here the most important thing happened. The driver of "Kamaz" was facing a criminal case. Feeling guilty, he went to the hospital and asked, "What can I do for you?" Father Averky replied that nothing was needed and that they were not going to report him to the police. They struck up a conversation, and the priest asked if he had ever confessed in his life. It turned out that the driver had already committed one serious accident in the past, in which two people died, for which he served some time, but had never confessed in his life.
The moment of truth has come: the driver who caused the accident confessed right in the hospital to the victim of the priest
And now the moment of truth has come. The driver who caused the accident confessed right in the hospital to the victim of the priest. Previously, the driver did not even think about confession. And now the old sins were leaving the soul through a confession of repentance. His soul was already so disposed that words of repentance were born from the very heart. The driver left with a relieved soul.
It turns out that God has taken everything into account. From the outside, it may seem to us complete chaos: everything collapses, flies, falls apart. But this is also inscribed in God's Providence - every bruise and every lump of ours: everything has its own meaning and purpose. Because we are born in a world of sin and from childhood we need to learn to endure pain, to fill ourselves with bumps in order to grow mature and experienced.
God's Wisdom also turns the most unpleasant cases to the good of our soul. Who knows, maybe the mentioned accident was allowed to save the driver, who was guilty of the accident, from spiritual death. But everyone receives his own from God. By the way, all the victims recovered quickly enough. And what is most surprising, the girl's epileptic seizures disappeared after the accident.
Providence of God is providence, care in advance. As a worker of any earthly craft, for example fishing, he must know in advance what and at what moment will be needed, when to prepare the tackle, at what time to go to sea, when to rest, and when to work tirelessly, whom to take with you on the voyage, and whom not to allow, for his own benefit, someone, perhaps, to disembark from the ship just before the voyage for the sake of his own good, this is how the Lord God provides in advance for our life. He knows who to put in what place, to whom to give what benefits and to what extent, not to allow someone to benefit at all, and to remove someone from this life in time for the sake of his salvation and for the benefit of other people. And this means that with all our human chaos, there are no uncontrolled situations.
Health and illness, life and death, suffering and overcoming them are in God's hands. A. I. Solzhenitsyn fell ill with oncology in prison, but contrary to the expectations of doctors, the malignant tumor disappeared. The Lord granted him healing so that after his illness he would serve Russia for another half century. And sometimes, on the contrary, we pray and ask for healing, but the Lord takes the person anyway, because the hour has come to move into a better world.
And it means that if you did not achieve something, did not enter the place where you wanted to go, did not meet the person you liked so much, could not realize some of your plans, then it is God who leads you in a different, more necessary and a useful path for you, although it is sometimes very painful and bitter to accept it.
The providence of God can lead a person in the most mysterious, incomprehensible ways for him. This was partly the sight of the saints. Here is an unmarried girl complaining to Blessed Xenia of Petersburg that she cannot meet a soul mate in any way. The saint once gave her very strange advice: "Go quickly to the cemetery, there your husband buries his wife." In fact, the words turned out to be not foolishness, but a literal reflection of life's realities. The girl hurried to the cemetery, where she saw a young widower who had just buried his wife. The girl supported him in his grief, they were so imbued with each other that then they themselves created a family and lived in deep unanimity.
It seems to be an accident: both he and she replaced sick comrades - but this combined two destinies into one
And here is the situation we have at the Nikolo-Ugreshskaya seminary. An excursion group left Kolomenskoye for our monastery. But the group leader fell ill and asked a young girl Natalya to replace her during this trip. In the monastery, the group was supposed to be met by a guide, but he also fell ill and asked the seminary student Stephen to lead the group around the monastery. As soon as Stefan saw Natalia's eyes, he immediately understood: here, this is mine. They created a wonderful family, Stefan became a priest. But it seems to be an accident - both, at the request, replaced sick comrades. And this is how the two destinies joined, although they should not have met. It is clear that this was accomplished under the special guidance of God.
It means that everything is in God's hands. If something does not work out, the Lord has some kind of plan for us. Our task is to entrust ourselves, our loved ones, our life path into the hands of God. The soul often suffers more from experiences than from real troubles. But if we remember that the most troubles are the medicine from the Doctor who treats us - God, then it is possible to accept this as what is important for us to go through.
Blessed Matrona of Moscow, encouraging in difficult situations, said: “They carry the child in a sleigh, and there is no concern. The Lord Himself will control everything! The Lord carries us through life like on a sleigh, He Himself knows where and how to turn our life.
Of course, this does not mean that you need to do nothing. The Lord gave us hands and feet, so we must use them. God gave us a head, which means, before doing something, we need to think. We have been given some abilities and talents, which means we need to realize them. The Lord expects from us active participation, so that we weave the thread of our life from the material that God gives us. And someone from this God-given thread weaves a wonderful pattern of life, which pleases everyone around, and someone from it weaves loops to others. One uses the creative abilities given to him by God to develop himself and create everything around, and someone manages to accumulate the same abilities in order to get himself a bottle of vodka in the most sophisticated way.
Of course, each person is free in his life choice. But even choosing something, be it good or evil, and thereby influencing the lives of our people and those around us, we are still included in God's care for the world. The Lord controls the life of people, wisely considering our will. When the train travels forward, then everyone in it does whatever he wants, but the train moves along a certain route, and the driver controls it.
The providence of God covers our entire life, despite the fact that many external circumstances, someone else's interference in our fate, and our personal mistakes, it seems, are too significant to allow God's participation in our life. In an incomprehensible way, Divine Providence takes into account our "I want - I do not want".
It turned out that these annoying delays were for the benefit of the mission of Saint Innocent.
In the 19th century, there was a famous missionary who converted many pagans in Alaska and the Aleutian Islands to Christ - Saint Innocent (Benjamin). Once, having arrived on the island of Sith, he planned to leave with a sermon to the local residents - koloshi, but he could not, then he got together again, but circumstances prevented him, once again began to prepare, reproached himself for not wanting to go and still hesitated again. In the end, however, it turned out that he did not leave for the benefit of his own mission, because at that very period smallpox began in the ears, and if the saint had arrived, the pagans believed that the disease was associated with his appearance. Koloshi tried to infect the Russians, but the smallpox did not touch them, since the Russians were vaccinated, and then the Koloshi themselves asked for help. Many of them had their lives savedafter which the once hostile to the Russians began to listen to the preaching of the saint. Subsequently, Saint Innocent himself said that he felt his whole life, how he was guided by the Providence of God.
Why is it so important to notice the actions of God's providence in life? Because this clearly shows that the Lord is next to us, He participates in our life and our faith is not a theoretical speculation about the infinitely distant God, but a living connection with the Heavenly Father who cares about us.
At the right time in the right place
We do not see and do not realize God's care for us, just as the baby carried by the mother does not imagine that his whole life is from his mother, because he himself is in her bosom.
It would never even occur to an unborn baby that over time he will appear in the world and see his own mother. In the same way, God bears us, He nurses us all our lives, like a mother nurses a capricious child, and He very much expects that, having matured spiritually during our earthly life, we will move on to true life and see Him.
Sometimes the Lord manifests Himself clearly and explicitly, and sometimes it is mysterious and incomprehensible to the small mind of a person. In both cases, a person is still here on earth, seeing God's presence.
Obvious interference is the well-known conversion of the persecutor Saul to Christ. The fierce enemy of Christ, who approved the murder of Stephen the First Martyr, set out to eradicate the barely born faith of Christ. Not content with a harsh clean-up within Judea, he headed to Damascus with letters of assurance, allowing him to seize Christians. Suddenly a light shone on him from heaven - for “God is Light” (1 John 1: 5), - and a voice rang out: “Saul, Saul … I am Jesus, Whom you are persecuting; it is difficult for you to walk against the prick (Acts 9: 4-5). The direct intervention of God made Saul a sincere disciple of the Savior, the supreme apostle Paul.
But a clear miracle is not given to everyone. The Lord participates in our life, weaving a thread of seemingly natural events in the most unpredictable way for us. Deacon Vadim, who is very close to me, while doing social service, somehow crossed paths with an elderly woman Valentina Kronidovna. At that time she was 76 years old. She was a war veteran, had an order for the fact that after the bombing she rescued some high-ranking person from the rubble, about which there was a note in the newspaper from those old years, which said that Stalin himself had awarded her.
Valentina was sick with something, Father Vadim invited her to confess and receive communion, said that there was a church nearby, and tried to remind her: “You are a war veteran, there are no unbelievers in the trenches,” but Valentina Kronidovna laughed and answered resolutely: “Young man, don't fool me, there is no God. I am a war veteran, went through the war without any injuries, survived the famine in Leningrad … And what can you tell me about this? I need nothing". Valentina also added that she was surprised how people generally go to receive communion, why they do not have disgust to eat "from one spoon".
Ten years have passed. Father Vadim went with his priest friend to the military hospital in Izmailovo to receive communion with the patient. In the ward, Father Vadim noticed a completely withered old woman and was amazed at her thinness. After the Sacrament, when they were already going down to the exit, quite by accident in the corridors of the hospital they met a relative of Valentina Kronidovna. She recognized Vadim's father and approached. It turned out that Valentina, who was already 86 years old, was in the hospital in extremely poor condition - in fact, she was the same withered old woman. A few seconds were enough to miss a relative, but God arranged a meeting in the right place at the right hour. He returned them to the ward to return Valentine's soul to Heavenly Father. By some miracle, one more particle of the Holy Mysteries remained in the monstrance.
By this time, the doctors did not already know what to do: the once courageous woman, the hero of the country, Valentina felt terrible fear, she was afraid to be alone and sleep with the lights off. But a more joyful change took place in her soul, she said to the clergy: “I am afraid to die. My whole life has been wasted. The relatives who were nearby began to object to her: how much, they say, you have achieved in your life and how much you have, including great-grandchildren. Valentina answered: “All this does not make me happy, and I regret that at one time one young man (she did not recognize Vadim's father) said that there is no God, that I can do without it. I would very much like to have time to repent”. So she rethought that seemingly completely untenable meeting. The Lord arranged so that Valentina was given the last chance, and Father Vadim,without expecting it and at first not recognizing her, he ended up in her room.
The priest, who was with Deacon Vadim, took confession immediately. She confessed, as he recalled, from the very depths of her recovered heart, tears flowed from the eyes of the former communist, and her heart was cleared of old sins. Valentine received the Holy Mysteries. And here something happened that could have been ignored, apparently nothing special. The weather was cloudy, a thunderstorm was gathering, everything faded. The ward wanted to curtain the window, but Valentina unexpectedly said: “Open the window. I see light. Her eyes were peaceful and joyful, she seemed to see something, and all the fears that had tormented her before disappeared, as if they had never existed. The person to whom the Light is revealed becomes light himself.
Valentina Kronidovna also talked about her life, about what she had experienced and what she had accomplished, but at the same time she reaffirmed: “I regret how I lived, I have nothing to remember. Now my greatest joy is that the priests have come to me. And my heart has never felt such joy as it does now. If you have the opportunity, please come back tomorrow. The doctors grumbled at the clergy: they say that you are disturbing the sick, it all lasts too long, there is too much of everything in your rank. But they came anyway, performed the sacrament of the Unction. And after that - less than five minutes - Valentina looked at them peacefully and closed her eyes - her soul passed into another world.
This is how, by His inscrutable Providence, the Lord called the soul to Himself at the very last moment of her earthly life - through a completely random meeting of her relative with the priests. This meeting made up for the previous meeting, godlessness went away, and faith reigned in the heart. A simple Soviet woman Valentina Kronidovna was honored, as far as the Lord allowed, to see the same Divine light that once shone on the persecutor of Christians Saul.
In the Gospel, in the parable of the Kingdom of Heaven, likened to a seed thrown into the ground, it is said: “When the fruit is ripe, he immediately sends a sickle, because the harvest has come” (Mark 4:29). The Lord takes the soul when it is ripe for eternity, when it was given the opportunity to turn to Him, and in the case we have considered, the soul realized the very last chance.
What else to say? Although God provides and participates in the lives of people, he often does not interfere in our life in a visible way so that the free will of people can make a voluntary choice. The providence of God means that at every stage of our life, the Lord puts us in such conditions under which we could make a free choice in favor of good, truth, justice and through this ascend to Heavenly Father.
In fact, the Providence of God puts each individual person in such conditions in which his personal self-determination in relation to salvation is best manifested. Is this what we really want: good or evil, eternal life or temporary benefits? In life, we are repeatedly given the opportunity to know our weaknesses, imperfection, sinfulness, and hence to recognize the need for a Savior. However, accepting Him can be exclusively voluntary, and therefore not everyone turns to Him.
But we are accustomed to assessing the meaning of someone's life from the standpoint of eventfulness, personal achievements, and contribution to public welfare. And if we do not see this, then it seems that a person's life did not have any special meaning, as if it was deprived of the blessing of God. In fact, the life of any person is a gift of God, and life is comprehended not by the effect it produces on others, but by its connection with God.
And we often think that much of what happened was empty and unnecessary. Give me the opportunity, I would take and rewrite my life. We perceive real life as a poorly written draft: I would correct here and here, would create such a correct, ideal version of my life path. In life, everything seems somehow wrong. But God leads us along this particular path. And He is next to us as we really are. He allows us the most mistakes, sorrows, illnesses for some purpose that is not always clear to us.
In the diary of the holy Empress Alexandra Feodorovna there are amazing words: “We know that when He refuses our request, then fulfilling it would be for our evil; when He leads us on the wrong road that we marked out, He is right; when He punishes or corrects us, He does it with love. We know that He does everything for our highest good."
In a mosaic, every pebble or piece of smalt itself seems to mean little. And you might think: what is so special about it, and what is the point of this small, meaningless pebble? But it is from such small stones that the mosaicist lays out a majestic image. So the small events of our life are pebbles from which God lays out the mosaic of our life. But in order to understand the mosaic, one must look at it without pressing his face against the canvas, but only looking at it from a distance.
Time passes, and after many, many years, we suddenly realize that we used to be as if by Someone, Someone saved us from false steps, saved us from desperate situations, protected us from dangers. And if we were allowed to fall, it was only so that we could learn some important lesson from this. The providence of God is understood at a distance. Only very far-sighted people who are able to deeply relate to life, and not focus on the momentary, can immediately perceive God's Providence and foresee God's ways. It is unlikely that we belong to such people. Therefore, it is better to humbly accept what is given to us in life, remembering that all this is given from God.
From time to time, as a priest, I meet people who have experienced clinical death. One of them said that, once in that world, he saw his body from the side, saw doctors trying to do something, then found himself somewhere else, and his whole life was scrolled before his gaze. He was shown that in everything that happened to him, there was absolutely nothing meaningless, even some everyday situations, even something that seemed to bring no life benefit, some meetings - nothing was accidental, because in all this, the Providence of God was also manifested.
A familiar priest, Archpriest Victor, served in a simple rural church in the Yaroslavl diocese. He did not have personal transport, he hitchhiked. Usually, when he was voting on the sidelines, he was always given a lift. Once an empty foreign car flew past, so that Father Victor even regretted not getting into it. Then they took him into a car full of people, and after a while he saw a foreign car in a ditch. So the Lord clearly showed that he saved him from a comfortable car and that you need to thank God for what is served to you.
And once Father Victor got into the car in which the couple were traveling, he got into a conversation with them, and it turned out that they were going to have an abortion. Without knowing why, Father Victor said: “Don't do this. If a boy is born to you, it will be such a consolation for you! Then Father Victor landed at his native village. He took up the usual service and went to the demands. Months passed. And then he suddenly began to receive parcels with food and photographs. It turned out that the spouses who brought him up obeyed, they really had a boy and became an extraordinary joy and consolation for everyone. So the Lord saved the life of the baby, and saved his parents from the terrible sin of murder by arranging a seemingly random meeting with the priest, who, himself not understanding how, predicted the birth of a son.
In conclusion, I would like to recall the famous elder - the Monk Paisiy the Holy Mountain. One of his spiritual children, Athanasius Rakovalis, a writer from Thessaloniki, told what a miracle happened to him shortly before the death of the elder. Athanasius sometimes took the Monk Paisios from the Holy Mountain, and they traveled to the Greek village of Suroti. It took two to three hours by car. On the way, they always talked, discussed various issues. Once Athanasius asked the elder: “Father, but what is God like? Tell me something about God, Which One Is He? " Athanasius was expecting some kind of answer that the elder would say: God is like this and like this. But instead Elder Paisius bowed his head and began to pray. As Athanasius recalls, he did not pray for long, less than one minute, but very deeply, and then … this is how Athanasius himself says: “Suddenly, suddenly, as if the sky opened up, my soul opened up. I was driving, the place was high - serpentine. Suddenly I began to feel God: in the car, in the hills themselves, in the stars, in the galaxy - everywhere I felt God. I used to feel anxiety about everything that happens around us, in the world, how and what will happen to us. At that moment I realized that all this is in the hands of God. Nothing, even a small leaf, moves without the will of God Himself."
And this means that, wherever you are, you are everywhere, for the Lord God is everywhere, and He cares about you like a father about a child. This means that we should not talk about enemies or the intrigues of demons, not about the fact that someone is trying to spoil you and jinx you, but about the fact that the Lord is everywhere, He holds everything in His hands, and demons without His permission cannot even enter pigs.
A person goes through life, gaining experience and various skills. Of course, this is his personal path, he makes it himself. However, God guides a person along this path, as a parent leads a small child learning to walk.
God wisely and mercifully cares, provides for the whole Universe and especially for His even disobedient creatures - people, trying to direct their lives for the good and eternal salvation of the soul.
Priest Valery Dukhanin