My mind is blown!
Have you ever had anything happen that is an uncanny coincidence?
Years ago my brother taught me about the idea of synchronicity.
Synchronicity is a term coined by psychologist Carl Jung to describe seemingly unrelated events that occur together in a way that feels deeply meaningful.
This happened to me last week.
I have been slowly getting my house in order now that we are in a different season of life. I am homeschooling my daughters, a junior and an 8th-grader, which means I spend a lot of time in our family den, so naturally I decided the den needed some attention.
I was gifted a pothos by my mom and I really wanted to find the right pot for it to match the aesthetics I had been creating.
I looked online. I looked around my house. I looked at a couple stores.
Nothing.
I had moved a bookshelf into a corner of the den, and I could picture exactly what I wanted sitting on it. I had already repotted the poor plant three times trying to find something that worked.
Meanwhile, my parents needed some help with their move and asked me to pick up some boxes at Home Depot. I found the boxes close to where the plants were kept, so I decided it couldn't hurt to take a look at their selection of pots.
As I was giving up hope in the search, I spotted one in the very back. It was really pretty and a great price. I looked at it next to a picture of the bookshelf and thought, this is perfect!
I bought it with the boxes and loaded the car. I was thinking about the names of the pots I had seen at the store. Many of them had female names…Kyra, Lorelei, Aurelia. I wondered what my new pot’s name was.
Ottilia.
I had never heard that name before. It was so unusual, I decided to Google it.
I learned that Ottilia is a Germanic name associated with prosperity, wealth, and heritage.
Interesting!
I love learning random things, so I tucked that little piece of information away and continued to my parents' house.
When I arrived, I helped pack up the boxes and load them onto the trailer to be moved. We came inside for a break and my mom was showing me some old pictures she was saving.
I got to see my grandmother on her side when she was younger than I am now.
I saw my grandpa as a little boy with his family in an old black and white photo. Their outfits were so cute! It looked like one of those old-timey dress-up photos people like to recreate, but it was real! It would've been taken in the early 1900’s.
My grandpa was standing next to his parents and four siblings.
As my parents and I talked about the people in the photograph, they told me that my dad's middle name came from his grandpa's name. They shared a few family stories, including how my great-grandma used to tease my great-grandpa.
Then they told me her name.
Ottilia.
Wait.
Ottilia!?
I honestly thought I had heard them wrong.
They said my great-grandpa used to call her Tilly. She was a proper German lady and they were the first two from our lineage to come over on the boat to America.
I stood there amazed.
Only a short time earlier, I had bought a pot, almost serendipitously.
The pot had an unusual name I had never heard before.
For no particular reason, I had been curious enough to look up that name.
And I had learned it was Germanic and connected to heritage.
Then I walked into my parents' house, looked through photographs of my family's heritage, and discovered that Ottilia was the name of my German great-grandmother.
Through a series of completely blind coincidences, my pothos is now named Tilly.
Providence isn't always a giant miracle or an unmistakable answer to prayer. Sometimes it can look like a hidden design quietly unfolding through an ordinary day—a trip to Home Depot, a flowerpot tucked on the back of a shelf, an unfamiliar name, and an old family photograph.
Do I think God needed me to buy a flowerpot named after my great-grandmother?
Probably not.
But sometimes I think God just likes to surprise me.
Sometimes I imagine Him weaving these tiny details together simply because He knows I'll notice.
Little winks hidden throughout my day.
