Ok, time to confess another guilty pleasure. Tammy and I love romantic comedies.

On a recent evening we sat down and watched Serendipity. Serendipity, a word that refers to a fortunate accident, begins “several years ago” when two procrastinators, John Trager (John Cusack) and Sarah Thomas (Kate Beckinsale) meet in a crowded Bloomingdale’s Department Store on a snowy Christmas Eve.

Each is desperate to find the perfect gift and both grab the same (and last) pair of cashmere gloves at the same moment. John eventually lets Sarah have the gloves and she buys him coffee as a thank you. As they talk over coffee, sparks begin to fly.

While they are both currently in relationships, they enjoy each other’s company. Sarah is unwilling to reveal even her name, however, and tells John that if they are meant to be together, the Universe will bring them back together.

The rest is just details. The viewer KNOWS the Universe WILL bring them back together and it does in an ending that is sappy and romantic, which, of course, is the allure of romantic comedies. They make you feel good about being in love.

Woven throughout the story is the idea of fate and destiny leading us to where we are to supposed to be and to whom we are supposed to be with. As a Calvinist, I take comfort in something like that, but which has marked differences.

Fate and destiny are pagan concepts, the Western version of which found its expression in Greek mythologies. The Fates were three women who wove tapestries that determined the length and contents of one’s life. The modern understanding of Fate is a good deal more atheistic and impersonal. Fate is a force that drives someone inexorably to his destiny. Yet if such a thing were to exist, it would have to be personal. Every design has a Designer.

Of course we believe that Great Designer is God, who created all things and governs them by his Providence. Providence means that God in a most holy, wise, and powerful way preserves and governs every creature and every action.

We Calvinists are quick to see Providence in the good things, but honestly, as I look back on my life, I see the hand of Providence most clearly in the darkest, saddest, most hopeless times of my life. God often uses difficulty to move us to where he wants us to be. At the time it may seem rather pointless, but perspective grows with time.

No impersonal force is driving me through a series of serendipitous accidents to a good ending. Rather, Almighty God, who declares the end from the beginning, who calls the stars out by name and moves them in order, who appoints times and seasons, who raises up nations and brings them low, this God is at work in my life.

Providence comforts in the hard times. When evil knocks on our door, knowing that God is in control and is working everything to a good, appointed end, helps get through it.

And sometimes, you still get the pretty girl. I sure did.

Editor’s Note: We look forward to Kevin’s commentary on Adjustment Bureau.

Kevin Carroll is a minister in the Presbyterian Church in America and serves as pastor of Covenant Presbyterian Church in Wheat Ridge, Colorado. He is an RTS graduate and blogs regularly at http://www.reformedandlovingit.org/ where this article first appeared. It is used with permission. [Editor’s note: the original URL (link) referenced is no longer valid, so the link has been removed.]