"Coincidences are miracles where God chooses to be anonymous."

God has often used music to convey the richness of faith and the beauty of creation to me. Recently, I was thrilled and a little thrown to experience such musical beatification once again.

We were visiting a friend in San Francisco. We had grown close during the time of her sister Camille's dying and we were now spending time deepening our friendship.

Our friend works with the San Francisco Symphony so naturally the conversation turned harmonic as we mused on music that has mattered to us.

She spoke of the night her sister had died and how she and I had spoken on the phone. I was at Camille's bedside and had relayed the sad news during a break in the symphony's performance of Gustav Mahler's Symphony #2. This was on September 17, 1992.

Six days later, while I was leading the memorial service for Camille at Lord of the Mountains Church, the San Francisco Symphony was recording Mahler's Symphony #2 for London Records.

Our service included these words from Mahler's Symphony #2:

O believe, my heart, but believe:
Nothing will be lost to you!
Yours is what you longed for,
Yours what you loved,
What you fought for!

O believe:
You were not born in vain!
You have not lived in vain, nor fought!

What has come into being must perish,What has perished must rise again!Cease from trembling!Prepare to live!

On September 17, 1994, the recording of Mahler's Symphony #2 was finally released by London Records. It was the second anniversary of Camille's death.

On July 19, 1995, while sitting around the dining room table discussing these significant coincidences, the classical radio station we had only been half-listening to began to broadcast the San Francisco Symphony's recording of Mahler's Symphony #2 recorded on September 17, 1992.

We sat in silence.

We sat with tears.

Gustav Mahler's Symphony #2 is known as "The Resurrection Symphony".