Innholdsfortegnelse for Dec/Jan 2022 i Mysterious Ways

When my brother-in-law AJ got engaged, one of the first things his father, Jack, said was, “I’ll need a Nino tuxedo.” Nino was Jack’s longtime tailor. Jack had entrusted him with tailoring all his store-bought suits and making custom suits for special occasions. Nino had been involved in every major family and professional event in Jack’s life for a decade. Here was another. This was no small thing. Jack is a perfectionist, especially about his clothing. If the tailoring is off, it can ruin his day. Jack had even continued driving to Nino’s shop long after the family moved from northern New Jersey to the Jersey Shore. Jack gladly made the three-hour round trip to put himself in his friend’s capable hands A few weeks after the engagement announcement, Jack…

It was 1968. I was in New York City, stuck in traffic. I’d made the long trip up from South Carolina to visit friends. I hoped it would be worth this headache. As I crept forward, I let my mind wander for just a second—and plowed into the car in front of me. Hands shaking, I followed the car to the side of the road. The other driver was a woman about my age, petite, with ash-blonde hair. She examined her bumper. “Hey,” I said. “I’m so sorry.” “Don’t worry. It doesn’t look bad. But we should probably exchange information.” “Of course.” I handed her my license and insurance card. When she looked at them, the colorshe drained from her face. “What is it?” I asked. She looked back up…

Tucked away in the woods off Interstate 35 in Clear Lake, Tucked Iowa, is the Guardian Angel Roadside Chapel. The small white church was built in 1991 by a man named Jack Kennedy, in memory of his aunt, who claimed her life was saved by a guardian angel. Despite its compact size, the chapel has a large stained glass window in the shape of a cross, which serves as a beacon directing travelers on the highway in need of a quiet spiritual moment. In 1992, the original chapel burned down. A year later, community members rebuilt it, incorporating reclaimed stained glass from local churches. The result is a beautiful and fully functioning tiny church, open daily to residents and travelers alike from dawn to dusk.…

Winter Reads Curl up by the fire with Guideposts’ Curl Christmas Recollections at Grace Chapel Inn! This series of three novellas about Christmas miracles will warm your heart while it’s cold outside. Order yours today at Guideposts.org/ChristmasGuideposts.ChristmasRecollectionsRec Grief Dreams and the Pandemic Grief dream expert Dr. Joshua Black Grief discusses how these dreams help us cope with loss during and after the pandemic at Guideposts.orgGuideposts.org/PandemicGriefDreams/PandemicGriefDreams. Holiday Miracles 10 wondrous stories of Christ mas 10 miracles that will uplift and inspire you at Guideposts.orgGuideposts.org/ChristmasComfort/ChristmasComfort.…

I spotted the Christmas tree at a neighborhood yard sale. It looked nearly real, and the price was right. Still, I wasn’t sure how my husband, Aaron, would feel about getting an artificial tree. A few months earlier, Aaron had been diagnosed with Stage IV throat cancer. I desperately wanted this Christmas to be everything it had always been. I’d been stubbornly telling myself we’d keep up our annual family trip to the Christmas tree farm, where we let our two teens pick out a tree. We all loved that tradition. If I was being honest, though, between the doctor visits, the chemotherapy and the radiation, it probably wasn’t going to happen this year. Would Christmas be the same with a faux tree? I gave Aaron a quick call to…

“[Physics] filled me with awe, put me in touch with a sense of original causes. Physics brought me closer to God. That feeling stayed with me throughout my years in science. Whenever one of my students came to me with a scientific project, I asked one question, ‘Will it bring you closer to God?’”Isidor Isaac Rabi, PHYSICIST “I had the intention of becoming a theologian…but now I see how God is, by my endeavors, also glorified in astronomy.”Johannes Kepler, ASTRONOMER “Here is the cosmological proof of the existence of God……The fine-tuning of the universe provides prima facie evidence of deistic design. Take your choice: blind chance that requires multitudes of universes or design that requires only one.”Ed Harrison, COSMOLOGIST “Science’s tools will never prove or disprove God’s existence.”Francis S. Collins,…

Diane Stark The car door shut behind me—The click—and locked. —Oh no. My keys, and my 18-month-old daughter, were locked inside! I was meeting a friend for lunch. I’d been getting something from the trunk when the door accidentally closed. Lunch forgotten, I called the locksmith. It would be an hour wait. I was starting to panic when another car, the same make and model as mine, pulled into the parking lot. I’d heard that some key fobs can unlock other cars of the same model. I explained the situation to the driver, and she agreed to try. She pointed her fob at my car. It unlocked! I threw open the door and scooped up my daughter, thanking the woman profusely. I ran into her again when we were both…

“The more mysterious God is “to you, the closer he is to you.”—ADRIENNE VON SPEYR Adrienne von Speyr (1902–1967) was a Swiss physician, author and mystic whose deep spiritual life began in childhood. As a young girl, she had visions of Mother Mary, angels and saints. Chronically ill in her youth, she had a deep compassion for the sick and would accompany her physician father to hospitals to comfort patients. She went on to become one of the first women physicians in Switzerland, providing free care when her patients could not afford to pay. After 1940, her revelatory insights about God and Scripture increased through prayer. She dictated these insights to her friend and mentor, Swiss theologian and Catholic priest Hans Urs von Balthasar. Later in life, her eyesight failing,…

I was driving home from work one afternoon when the cars I in front of me slowed to a crawl. I craned my neck to try to spot what was causing the slowdown, but I couldn’t see anything. Great. Exactly what I need. A traffic jam. I was in a rush, as usual. It felt as if everything was rushed these days. My life was a whirlwind. My grandson and stepdaughter were living with me since she’d gotten divorced, and I was anxious to get home and talk with her about her search for a new place, which was taking longer than I expected. On top of that, I was working two jobs. I couldn’t remember the last time I’d had a moment to rest. Stressed and anxious, I sent…

Snowflakes were the last thing thing Tom Barry wanted to see. It was al-ready late and he still had more than half a field of corn to harvest. Snow would slow him down more than anything. It would not only make the corn harder to pick but also make hauling it away nearly impossible. Why this? he thought to himself. Why now? For the first time since his father had died, he felt the careful control he’d worked so hard to maintain slip away. His dad had always been his rock. Growing up in a large family with limited means, he had learned at a young age how to carry his own weight—a lesson he passed on to his children. Tom had inherited not only his dad’s work ethic but…

I walked along the pebble-covered shore of Lake Superior I on a sunny May morning, my eyes downcast, lost in thought. I’d come here to clear my mind and hopefully lift my spirits. I’d been feeling really down lately. During the pandemic, I’d been let go from my teaching job, and I hadn’t seen much of my family or friends in months. I was a bit lonely, and I was finding it hard to stay positive. I remembered the quote I’d read earlier that morning in my daily reader: “Joy is all you need.” If only I could find it, I thought. Just then, I spotted something up ahead, near where the waters of the lake met the shore. It was a strange little rock. Small and round, it had…

Sue Perry of Wakefield, England, logged into Facebook Sue one day to give away some old books and CDs. She found a Wakefield Facebook group and posted the items there. But after a few minutes, she realized she’d posted in a group not for her city of Wakefield, England, but for the town of Wakefield, Canada! Laughing at her mistake, she wrote an-other post apologizing and clarifying she’d joined the wrong group. Or had she? The group’s members started to chat with her in the comments, asking how things were going in her Wakefield. Sue shared that things were tough. Her daughter and son-in-law, both nurses, and her son, an outreach worker, had all caught Covid-19 through their jobs. The Wakefield, Canada, group didn’t hesitate to help their new friend.…

Viola Slade, 94, was out on Viola Richlee Drive, in Camillus, New York, checking her mailbox one afternoon when she dropped a piece of mail. Bending to pick it up, she lost her balance and toppled to the ground. She was unable to get back up. She desperately looked up and down the quiet suburban street for someone to help her, but it was empty as always. She lived alone and had no phone with her to call for help. She was stuck. Worst of all, the temperature was in the low twenties, and Viola was completely unprepared for the weather without her hat or gloves on. At that exact moment, a car came down the road. It slowed and pulled over. A man got out to see if she…

When I was 14 years old, I came down with pneumonia. Burning with fever, I was rushed to the hospital. That night, I had a dream I’ll never forget. It was in black and white. I was standing on an oceanside pier. Dark clouds loomed overhead, and mist swirled around me. I saw an approaching ship on the horizon and heard a mournful prayer in a foreign language. Somehow I knew that if that ship made it to shore and I got aboard, I would die. And it was drawing steadily closer. The prayers and the ocean grew to a deafening roar. Then I noticed a statue of a ship captain to my left. Even though he was inani-mate, I understood that he was my protector. I felt an other-worldly…

We want to know! Share your story with us on Facebook.comFacebook.com/MysteriousWays/MysteriousWays or e-mail us at MW@Guideposts.orgGuideposts.org for a chance to be featured in Mysterious Ways. “‘Please, God, help me,’ I whispered. “‘Then I noticed something. A pair of lights seemed to glow dimly through the snowstorm. I blinked hard, then peered ahead. There they were. Taillights! There was a car in front of me. Someone was here with me. Focus on the lights, I told myself, not your fear.” To read about how Gena Wilimitis was mysteriously rescued from a snowstorm, turn to page. “Like” us at Facebook.com/MysteriousWays…