Miracles of God Part 3 — Bob Marley & the Pet Shop Boys

Paul Rouke
Nov 5 · 5 min read

Today I’ve met up with two of my family for only the 2nd time in 7 years. The 1st time was 4 months earlier this year in June, 5 days before I had my Confirmation. On that day we talked openly about our lives, family and childhood experiences for the first time in our lives. We are all in our 40s.

My oldest family member is an atheist, my younger family member is very open-minded but isn’t a Christian.

During our 5.5 hours together today, we all talked openly about what is going on in our lives. We again talked about childhood and about the burdens we can end up carrying with us in our lives from just a few words spoken to us when we were young.

I also talked about some of Gods miracles which I have started sharing on Medium. I also shared a few more minor miracles that I have experienced along with miracles that led other Christians to develop their faith.

My oldest family member listened but maintained their stance that they will never believe in God. I totally respected their views and I said:

“Developing faith and becoming a Christian is only ever on a personal basis that has to come from within. No one can force someone else to develop faith. All I can do is share with you the truth of what has been happening in my life.”

The Pet Shop Boys

During the afternoon my oldest family member talked about how their favourite band The Pet Shop Boys have recently released a new single with another band who are up and coming. They shared how the B side of the single is absolutely brilliant and it has got Pet Shop Boy fans around the world eagerly anticipating how good their new album is going to be in early 2020. I could see the passion in their face and voice as they were sharing this with me. They have been a Pet Shop Boys super fan for over 30 years. And I mean a super fan.

We continued talking about various things in our lives right now and also reflecting back on experiences we hadn’t shared before.

Bob Marley and Three Little Birds

I shared with my family members the story in August 2019 at Nantwich food festival, of when a Jamaican man whom I’d never met in my life before, told me what he believes is what I will end up doing with my life.

4 days prior to meeting this man, which only happened by me listening to God saying to me he would like me to meet someone at the food festival, I wrote in my journal what God had placed inside of me of what was going to be “my calling” in my life.

This was the same as what the Jamaican man told me what he believes.

My youngest family member went “wow that is just brilliant!” and my oldest family member just looked quite neutral and didn’t say anything.

Just at that moment, I started to hear what was playing through the restaurant sound system.

It was Bob Marley and the Wailers singing “Three Little Birds”.

I smiled, my youngest family member smiled, my oldest family member shook their head, and I gave both my family members a big cuddle, and said:

“Every little thing is gonna be alright.”

Pet Shop Boys

We headed out and went for a walk around Lancaster. My oldest family member brought up Pet Shop Boys again, sharing how on the singles sales charts, not the streaming charts, the new Pet Shop Boys song is number 1. I went on to Spotify, found the song “Dreamland (feat Years & Years)” and played this whilst we carried on walking and talking.

I have to say it’s a good song!

Saying Our Goodbyes

About an hour later we were saying our goodbyes. I said:

“Thank you so much for today, it has been absolutely briliant.”

I looked at my oldest family member and said:

“Thank you for listening with an open mind.”

At this point, my oldest family member looked at me and said:

“Right Ok. I was going to mention this earlier but I didn’t. But with you just saying that, do you know what the title is of the B side of Pet Shop Boys new single is? It is “An open mind”.

My youngest family member and I looked at each other and smiled. My oldest family member broke into a little smile.

My youngest family member turned to my oldest family member and said:

“Hey, you are getting it now!!!”

Other miracles of God I have shared are here:

Here is part 2:

Here is part 4:

Here is part 5:

Here is part 6:

Here is part 7:

Here is part 8:

Paul Rouke

Written by

Christian. Daddy to our 3 beautiful daughters. Founder of @PRWD. Speaker. Google trainer. MMU lecturer. Advocate of industry, company & personal change.

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