Faith: Find the meaning behind life's synchronicity

My first memory of synchronicity happened when I was in junior high school. My grandmother was ill, and I went to the drug store to buy a card. When I returned home, I learned my grandmother had departed this life on that very day, around the time I was buying her a card.

I immediately assigned meaning to the incident as if I’d received a personal message from God. In my youth, I didn’t have a word for the coincidence. I now know that this was my first experience with synchronicity.

According to Meriam Webster, synchronicity is defined as, “the coincidental occurrence of events and especially psychic events (such as similar thoughts in widely separated persons or a mental image of an unexpected event before it happens) that seem related but are not explained by conventional mechanisms of causality — used especially in the psychology of Carl Gustav Jung.”

When Jung talked about synchronicity, he famously described the time he was working with a patient who related a dream in which she had a piece of jewelry in the shape of a golden scarab. In the middle of the session, as the woman recounted her dream, a green and gold scarab flew into the office. Her amazement at the sight of the scarab sparked a positive change in the woman’s psyche.

According to Jung, “Waking up to a meaningful coincidence could shift our thinking so we recognize a greater wholeness in all of creation and it could participate in a spiritual awakening.”

Coincidences most often happen to people who are mindful and notice things around them. Religious or spiritual people are more likely to experience coincidences. The 105th Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby said, “When I pray, coincidences happen. When I don’t, they don’t.”

“Synchronicity is an ever-present reality for those who have eyes to see,” said Jung.

Many other scholars agree. Writer and Episcopal Priest, Reverend Cynthia Caruso echoed this sentiment, “Be awake. Synchronicity is all around us. I imagine God is watching us and laughing at all the moments of synchronicity we’ve missed.”

The Bible is full of synchronicity, though the events aren’t labeled as such. The Star led the wise men to Bethlehem. They could have easily dismissed the Star as if it were any other star. Instead, they were awake and attentive. The Star guided them to Bethlehem.

When Jesus was baptized, as told in Luke 3:21, “the heaven was opened, and the Holy Spirit descended upon him in bodily form like a dove.” This event, too, could have been explained scientifically, practically, as a break in the clouds. The dove was merely a dove, nothing more. If not for the “awake” persons recounting the life of Christ, these moments of synchronicity, or connections to the “greater wholeness in all of creation,” would have been missed.

Just thinking about synchronicities made me realize, I’m surrounded by them. The other day in church, I told a woman she had a great speaking voice and encouraged her to be on the rotation to read for the lessons. That week, she signed up to join the lector rotation.

When I thanked her the next week, she said the day I suggested she become a reader, another woman also suggested the same thing. I pointed to the heavens and said, “A message from heaven.” She said, “Spoken twice, take the advice.”

One profound incident of synchronicity occurred in our church a few years ago. At a service on the anniversary of the bombing of Hiroshima, a female survivor of the horror, Chikako, recited the Lord’s Prayer in Japanese. During this recitation she fell. She was hospitalized and remained unresponsive. Several parishioners held a vigil for her at the hospital. Chikako had tended our parish grounds, so our priest placed a lush-red hibiscus flower from the church garden on her pillow. When she was taken off life support, the priest returned to the room and saw that the hibiscus had wilted.

Though not all synchronous moments are as awe-inspiring as Chikako’s story, every day we experience moments of synchronicity without noticing. In one session of a spiritual group I attend, I noticed participants shared eight different instances of synchronicity. A man struggling with feelings of complacency and impatience stumbled on a passage from St. John the Divine about his very issue. A woman discovered a poem she hadn’t read in years just at the time she needed it for a group she was starting.

Could these incidents be pushed away without notice? Maybe. Or, are they a vehicle to connect with the “greater wholeness of all creation,” as Jung said?

Jesus told his disciples to be awake. Imagine what we might discover if we all remained awake. Watch for the synchronous moments. They arrive disguised in mystery and magic and then linger luxuriously in blessings that enrich our lives.

Diane Owens Prettyman is a writer and music lover. She is a parishioner at All Saints Episcopal Church and a member of their Central Texas Interfaith Core Team.

This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: Faith: Message from God in synchronicity