Daily Devotional

Despite the stereotype, many burglaries actually occur during broad daylight. Just ask Doug Batchelor, who spent his time in Boston, ironically, as a thief during the day and a security guard at night.

He had a fake driver’s license; he had rented an apartment all for himself; and he had left his family behind.

He knew his dad was disappointed. His dad had expected to pass the aviation business on to him instead of Falcon, who had been born with cystic fibrosis. But at this point Doug did not care. He had had enough of that life.

So he lived life his own way, abiding by one rule of thumb: He never stole from the people whose homes he guarded. Everything else was fair game.

But one day, a fellow security guard and friend had a few words of warning for him. His friend, who knew about his other favorite pastime, believed heavily in karma. Doug was a thief; he would get what was coming to him, his friend predicted.

Doug brushed it off as nonsense, but he could not help but notice strange things beginning to happen. When he woke up one morning, he found his entire apartment had been ransacked. When he plugged in a stereo he had stolen earlier that day, he discovered it was broken. He would stash away money around his room and then, after getting high and drunk, could not remember where he had hidden it. Gradually, he began to get the sneaking suspicion that his friend had been right. There had to be some supernatural being somewhere orchestrating all this!

But it was when he stole a box of Krusteaz whole wheat pancake mix that he was convinced. Later that day, some friends visited unannounced and proceeded to down his brand-new jug of Tang, that nostalgic form of instant breakfast. Doug, looking forlornly at the empty jug, spied the white lid next to it; on it, stamped in blue was the price, $1.19. Amazed, he looked at the Krusteaz box; stamped on it was the exact price, $1.19.

And he thought to himself, “There has to be a God!”

Reflect: Doug’s friend called it “karma,” but that concept was actually stolen and distorted from the Bible. Scriptures instead tell of a universal principle, commonly labeled the Golden Rule. Have there been instances in your life that you thought were too odd to be coincidences? They very well could have been divine providence instead.