God Winks

My husband, Tim, often laughs at me because I commonly follow a serendipitous happenstance in our lives with the statement: “Look, honey! It’s a God wink!” After years of hearing this side-note remark, he recently asked me how I define a “God wink.”

To put it simply, I view "God winks" as unexpected blessings. They exist as the Lord’s encouragement and faithfulness to me, a subtle acknowledgement that He is at work in my life. They are not miracles. Sometimes they are undeserved rewards. Sometimes they are answers to quiet prayers. Always they reflect my personal relationship with the Lord and the Holy Spirit’s presence in my daily life.

Tim’s question, however, sparked an idea that has ignited a meaningful study which I thought I'd share.

In my vanity, I fancied myself the inventor of the term, “God wink.” So I was surprised to learn that an official definition exists. Yourdictionary.com defines it as follows:

God-wink: Noun. An event or personal experience, often identified as coincidence, so astonishing that it is seen as a sign of divine intervention, especially when perceived as the answer to a prayer.

Pretty interesting in light of our little non-profit company that Tim and I founded earlier this year. 

I consider Presidents’ Day weekend 2024 as the catalyst for this God wink study. Tim and I had been praying for God’s direction while spending the long weekend at my parents’ house. Specifically, we’d been praying about Tim’s future, a years-long tug on our hearts to make Christ-centered films, and whether or not to take advantage of an unexpected opportunity in front of us to attend the Christian Worldview Film Festival in March. 

On Monday, Presidents’ Day, with boldness of faith, Tim made the decision to resign from 30+ years of IT leadership in corporate America and answer God's call to produce documentaries of answered prayer and testimonies of faith. And with that, our new non-profit, Beacon of Light and Hope, Inc. was born!

The Plan

Tim would be the Founder and CEO. He would stand-up a new website to be the platform for people to view our documentaries, as well as a conduit to receive testimonies of answered prayers and faithful testimonies from people willing to share their stories on film. Tim would handle the technical aspects of the website, cinematography and post-production for our films. I would handle all other business aspects. Having no concept of the actual job description, I auspiciously dubbed myself the "Director of Development." I would sort through the stories we receive, work with the subjects (people) to schedule logistics & filming, and seek out new stories of impactful, real-life testimonies of faith and answered prayers to be made into films.

The vision was set. Our roles were clearly defined. That is when the God winks started to happen.

Wink #1:

It's March 11th, 2024. Tim and I find ourselves in Albany, Georgia attending Day 1 of the Christian World View Filmmakers Guild & Film Festival. It was surreal and strange how quickly it had all come together— registering for the festival, booking our flight & rental car, finding a place to stay, and getting my parents to agree to take our 12-year-old son for the week. This was all AFTER we’d filed the necessary paperwork to start our 501-3c non-profit faith-based film production company.

Not quite sure how or why we were there, we wandered around taking in all the festival had to offer in training workshops and encouragement in the craft of filmmaking. As we rounded a corner, we spotted an unlikely acquaintance from our recent past. With a wide grin, Tim greeted the gentleman, “Pastor Joseph? Do you remember me?” An awkward pause ensued followed by a lightbulb-faced exclamation, “Will’s Dad!” Before us stood Pastor Joseph Graber who had officiated our oldest son’s marriage on July 30th, 2022 in Littleton, Colorado. But why was this pastor, whom we barely knew, attending a film festival in Georgia?

Wink #2:

Unbeknownst to us, Pastor Joseph and his wife, Stacie, are seasoned filmmakers who were part of the founding membership of CWVFF. For over a decade they have been an integral part of CWVFF, serving as workshop speakers, judges, sponsors and vendors for the annual event. Their company, Thorn Crown Films (https://www.thorncrownfilms.com), is based in Colorado and they have produced several documentary and feature films.  We traveled all the way to Georgia to reunite with the Grabers, who live just 20 minutes from us in Colorado!

Wink #3:

As if running into the Grabers and learning they’re established Christian filmmakers wasn’t incongruous enough, we also learned that Joseph and Stacie are the founders of Colorado Faith in Film (https://www.faithinfilm.org/), whose mission is to encourage seasoned professionals while allowing newcomers in the industry to look over their shoulders and learn more about the craft. They host a monthly breakfast which encourages and connects Colorado Christian filmmakers. Based on an ad we saw in the online program for CWVFF, Tim and I had already signed up to be on the mailing list for Faith in Film. We were already scheduled to attend our first meeting on March 30th –just two weeks after the conference.     

Wink #4:

It’s the evening of Friday, March 22nd. Tim and I have returned from the festival– inspired and motivated to move forward and begin making films. We are at a church on the east side of Denver attending a musical production of “Pilgrim” (based on Bunyan’s popular novel, The Pilgrim’s Progress) starring some homeschool friends.  In a déjà vu moment, I round a corner in the church and come face-to-face with none other than Pastor Joseph Graber. “Pastor Joseph,” I say with a chuckle, “we have to stop meeting like this.”  Slightly bewildered, he gave a firm reply, “My wife needs to talk to you.”

I am taken aback by even seeing Joseph Graber at this little-known homeschool event, but I’m intrigued. Why would a woman whom I just re-connected with in Georgia be needing to talk to me? So I head off to find Stacie who, as it turns out, has directed the music and technical elements of this "Walk by Faith" stage production for the past year of its rehearsals (https://homeschooletc.org/theatre).  Finding her in a pew preparing for the performance, she lights up when she sees me. “I’ve been wanting to talk to you but didn’t have a good way to contact you, and now God just brought you to me! I love how God works!”

Wink #5:

It turns out that the Grabers had just lost the location where they were planning to host the monthly Faith in Film breakfast for March. Stacie remembered that our church (where our son’s wedding had been held) had a nice gathering place in the basement. God had put it on her heart to reach out to me and see if the breakfast could possibly be held there. This would be a long shot with only a week’s notice and no money to rent the space, and she did not have my contact information. But here I was in person. And our church came through! West Bowles Community Church kindly let us use their large gathering place complete with technology and a kitchen— for no charge.

Wink #6:

It’s the morning of Saturday, March 30th.  Tim and I rise early to ready the Keurig and the meeting space at West Bowles Community Church.  We soon welcomed our guest speaker, Mr. John Doryk (http://www.johndoryk.com/). We learn that John is a Colorado Springs resident and an award-winning composer and sound designer who has been creating original music and sound design for film and television for over 25 years.  At 8:00 AM, the Graber family (5 kids in tow) arrives with a delicious hot breakfast and sides. People from Colorado Springs, Greeley, Denver and the surrounding suburbs begin to trickle in. It’s a small but very chatty group. Tim and I mingle and marvel at the hospitality, generosity and creativity of this group. For the next hour, we enjoy a spirited presentation from the gifted John Doryk.  As he shares humorous stories, nuggets of wisdom and advice regarding being a Christian in the world of film, I find myself feeling so blessed by all that God has brought to us over the last 40 days.

That first Colorado Faith in Film breakfast has given us a circle of new friends who are talented filmmakers that I could not have imagined back on that cold Presidents' Day in my parents’ home. We had no idea about the breadth and dept of Christian film-making talent in our own backyard.   

The Lord has continued to answer our prayers for help. He has provided both Tim and me with mentors and encouragers. I am learning from producers, photographers, directors, writers, actors, set shepherds, sound engineers and editors…the list grows. I am privileged to have a front row seat to filmmakers who fear the Lord and honor their faith in Christ. Their works are a beacon of light and hope in this world, and we get to learn from them all.

One Big God Hug:

God added a big hug to our first Colorado Faith in Film breakfast wink. He brought me a new friend and mentor in Jeanie Nuanes King that morning. Jeanie is a vivacious, creative woman who has quickly become a partner in Christian filmmaking. She has invited both Tim and me to join her journey as a Christian filmmaker working in Colorado. She is bold and fearless and loves Jesus.

If you made it to the end of this blog... thank you! Please come back in a couple weeks for Part 2 where I’ll write about how Jeanie brought me onto the set of her pilot episode for a sitcom called 3 TABLESPOONS OF FAITH (https://www.3tablespoonsoffaith.com/) I'll be sharing, through my beginner’s eyes, what working on a film set really entails. Truly eye-opening (pun intended).

In the meantime, I hope you'll look for the God winks in your own daily life. They might be small and barely recognizable but they are His subtle acknowledgement, a personal lighthouse shining just for you during your daily voyage and the storms that are sure to arise. Look for them and you will be blessed tremendously. You don't want to miss them. Thank the Lord for them. They reflect Christ’s love for you.

And for the record, Tim is starting to come around to the idea that God might (on occasion) be winking at us.

Delve further into the concept of God winks at:

https://godwinks.com