A Miracle of God When My Jaw Dropped

In early 2019 I was 41 and I had little if any faith. I’m 43 as I share this experience which left my jaw dropped in August 2019.

February 2011

The Brit Awards 2011. James Corden introduced Adele, ready to sing her hit Someone Like You in the centre of the arena alongside her pianist.

I remember being moved significantly by the lyrics and the simplicity of the set-up. It became a YouTube video that was watched on a few more occasions in our home that year. It was in many ways mesmerising. The video has been watched over 170million times on YouTube at the time of writing.

February 2018

My wife and I decided to buy a 2nd hand piano. Our reasons were a combination of both liking the sound of a piano, the potential than one or both of us may decide to have piano lessons, and more importantly, we felt like one of our daughters Isabella or Sofia may like to learn to play the piano.

We found a classic and well looked after piano on eBay and purchased it.

Since then it has been in one of the rooms in our home which is in need of decoration. At the time of writing, none of us has had piano lessons, and the piano has been gathering dust.

Monday 16th September 2019

I was about to head out to walk to our girls school to pick Isabella and Sofia up. It was about 3.10pm. I hadn’t had any lunch so I decided to get 2 packets for crisps from the cupboard as a snack on my 6–7min walk to school. Getting towards the school I had finished the 2 packets of crisps and was thinking where there is a bin on the remainder of my walk to school. I recalled there being a bin at the entrance to the village medical centre, which is just before the gate into the primary school.

I got to the bin but it was very full, so rather than putting the 2 packets in there, I recall there being a bin in the school playground where us parents wait to pick our children up, so I decided to wait to put the packets in there.

Heading into the school gates for the short walk to the playground, I saw one of the mums and good family friend ahead of me. I thought I would speed up to catch up to her, but before I started to do that she turned around, said hello and stopped to wait for me to catch up with her.

We chatted about what we got up to at the weekend. We got to the playground and by this time it was about 3.20pm. Our children come out at 3.30pm.

We chatted a bit more and then when our conversation had naturally concluded, I once again heard his voice and he was asking me to go and speak to another parent. I looked around and saw the bin that I was thinking about earlier. I told my friend I’m just going over to the bin to put my crisp packets in there.

I went over, put the packets in the bin, and then stayed in that place and just looked around at the other waiting parents, smiling at those who I caught eye contact with. It was now about 3.25pm.

I saw another mum and good friend of ours in front of me facing away, chatting to another mum. Their conversation finished so I thought I’d say hello to her. We chatted briefly about the weekend, and then her daughter came out and came over to her mum. On her back was a guitar. About 30 seconds later Sofia came out and came over to me for a cuddle and then she handed me her bag. Sofia is in the other girls class.

Sofia said to me “Daddy please can I learn to play an instrument?”.

Prior to developing faith in the last 6 months, my instinct would have been to politely say something along the lines of “maybe one day Sofia, let's just leave it for now, we have enough going on”.

Instead I said “OK well maybe yes.” I asked my friend is her daughter just in a school music class, and she said it is a scheme called Music for Life that the school is involved in. She said that any child can start taking lessons, with a monthly cost. I asked if it is for certain instruments and she no it's quite open with a range of instruments to choose from.

I asked Sofia what musical instrument she would like to learn to play.

“Piano, I can learn to play the piano daddy. We have a piano at home, so I can practice at home too.”

It struck me what a good idea this was, and I started to recall thinking about our girls learning to play the piano about 18 months earlier.

I asked my friend what we need to do and she said just said to speak to a teacher, then there is a website you need to register and book on to.

I went over to ask one of the teachers, and he suggested I call round at reception as they have more details on this scheme.

We went round to reception and asked about the Music for Life scheme, and I was given a phone number to ring on a post-it note. I put it in my back pocket and I headed home with our 3 girls.

Next to the medical centre is a play area, and the girls asked if they could have a play on there. I said of course, so they went in the play area. As I started to watch them play, I felt compelled to call the number of the post-it note — rather than doing the easy option of thinking “I’ll give it a call sometime this week when I get chance.”

I called the number and spoke to a very friendly woman named Deb. I explained that my 7-year-old daughter has asked about having piano lessons, so I’d like to know more. The lady said:

That is great. If you are really interested, today is the last day of bookings for the next 12 week course which is starting on the 1st October. After today, the next 12 week course will start in early January 2020. Of course it is up to you, I don’t want to pressure you or anything.

I said that my daughter is really keen so we will very likely book on tonight. She said that is fantastic when young children are keen. She confirmed the monthly cost and which website I need to go on to book, and I thanked her help — I said I am sure Sofia is going to absolutely love learning to play the piano.

Shortly after finishing on the call Sofia came over and I said:

Guess what, I have called the number and you are going to be starting piano lessons early next month! We just need to book you on tonight.

Sofia was delighted.

Later that evening we were eating dinner and Sofia reminded me that we hadn’t booked her on the lessons yet. I got out my phone and went to the Music for Life website and started the joining process.

Sofia was sat next to me watching and then a question came up “what instrument do you want to learn to play?”. I started scrolling down the list to find piano, when Sofia said

Hang on daddy, I don’t think I want to learn to play the piano, let me see what other instruments I can learn instead.

I knew in my heart that Sofia learning the piano was right for her. I wanted to inspire Sofia at the beauty of the piano.

My thoughts quickly turned to Adele’s 2011 performance of Someone Like You at the Brit Awards. I said to Sofia “hang on a minute, let me show you a video which I think you will like.”

As I opened up YouTube and started to search for this performance, Sofia said

“No its OK, I want to learn the piano. We already have a piano so it means we won’t need to buy an instrument.

That was music to my ears. I completed the booking process, ready for Sofia to start piano lessons in October 2019.

Wednesday 18th September 2019

I was in Wetherby all day presenting to a client. We finished about 3.30pm and their co-founder, one of the team and I went for a drink in their makeshift chill out and bar area (the client is craft beer seller Beer Hawk).

My plan was to replicate my journey this morning on the way home, getting a taxi to Leeds train station and then a train to Manchester Picadilly, then a train home. The co-founder said he could only have one drink as he is driving to York Train Station and then getting a train to London for a major presentation to the group board tomorrow.

I said that’s absolutely fine, I will head off in a bit to get back to Leeds. He said:

“You can get a train back to Manchester from York, I can give you a lift if you like and we can have a chat?”

I accepted his kind invitation, and one of the senior Beer Hawk team who was also heading down to London asked if he could get a lift to.

The 3 of us went to York train station, parked up and with about an hour until their booked train to London, we went into one of the bars in the station.

Over the next 45mins we had a couple of drinks and a really interesting conversation, then they went off to get their train. I was contemplating whether I look for the next train back to Manchester. I heard God’s voice again and he encouraged me to stay. I heard his voice saying to me:

Just relax, it has been an intensive last few days, maybe just make a few calls to catch up with some friends. There is no rush.

I got out my phone and sent a few messages. One friend whom I’d not spoken to for around 5 weeks was called Misha. We had messaged on WhatsApp a few times, but I thought it would be great to speak to him.

I called Misha and he picked up. We started talking about working for yourself, making big decisions about growing a business, and our individual journey of faith. Our conversation was going deeper and by this time I was walking around York Train Station, aiming to stay away from trains going past so I can hear what Misha was saying.

I saw a double door and I decided to go through there as it might be a bit quieter. As I walked into this fairly large space with just a few people around, I looked to my right and against the wall, there was a piano. I immediately thought about Sofia and her upcoming piano lessons, and I smiled.

I looked ahead of me and there was a bench, and I thought that looks like a good quiet place to carry on speaking to Misha.

Then just to my left, there were 2 girls around 18–20, walking towards the piano. As I was walking casually forward towards the bench the girls passed in front of me and got to the piano.

As I sat down and carried on listening to Misha, I started hearing the sound of a women's voice and a piano playing. I looked to my left to the 2 girls, and a few seconds later, with my eyebrows raised, I had got out my 2nd phone and started video recording.

Here is what I recorded.