Answers to prayers are, of course, a poignant form of personal revelation. Last week I wrote about receiving personal revelation. This week I would like to share a story that teaches the reality of personal revelation and demonstrates the intimate love and concern God has for each of us.

It is a multifaceted tale that involves a number of people operating independently of each other to bring God's purposes to pass.

It is interesting to realize that although we often live in close proximity and are closely bound to one another -- say in marriage or in family life -- ultimately we live in "parallel universes." We observe, communicate, laugh, cry and have many experiences in common, but in the end each life is significantly different from another.

The term "parallel" suggests those shared or common experiences, while "universe" indicates a world all one's own. A family may be close-knit and enjoy enormous interaction, but nevertheless they live in parallel universes because although their lives intersect at many points along life's pathway they have many different and varied experiences.

This is a story of several lives intersecting in dramatic ways, those intersections orchestrated by a loving Heavenly Father to provide personal revelation in answer to heartfelt prayer. Individual's names have been changed.

A few weeks ago I sat across from a lifelong friend over lunch. After her husband died from cancer Leigh moved to Utah, but she keeps in touch with friends in Arizona, where she used to live and where her husband died.

Leigh told me about her son, Elder Mason, and a recent experience on his mission in the eastern United States.

The previous Tuesday he was on exchanges, working with a missionary who is not his regular companion in an area to which he is not normally assigned. It was an area, however, where an old family friend from Arizona now lived.

Elder Mason hoped to stop by and visit the Jones family. However, when he and his companion looked at the map they decided their schedule would not allow a visit.

After a couple of appointments they pulled into a local Target to use the restroom. As they walked into the store a young woman was walking toward them and waved at them. She walked up and said "Hi Elders, I'm Aubrey Jones in such-and-such a ward." It was the wife of the friend Elder Mason wanted to visit. Then she looked at their name tags.

Flash back to one week earlier when Aubrey learned that her mother had cancer and six to nine months to live. After learning the news Aubrey was talking to a friend from their Arizona ward.

The friend tried to comfort Aubrey by saying, "Do you remember Brother Mason (Leigh's husband and Elder Mason's father)? He lived 19 months after being diagnosed with cancer and he was told he had only six months to live."

Aubrey was consoled with the thought she might have her mother longer than six to nine months. Still, the next Sunday, devastated by the thought of losing her mother, she fasted and prayed for comfort through the difficult times ahead.

Two days later Aubrey was in Target. As she looked at the missionaries' name tags she recognized Elder Mason and realized he was the son who had lost his father to cancer.

I will now quote from two emails.

Leigh wrote that Aubrey's mother-in-law, Jenna, called her late in the evening on the night Aubrey ran into her son at Target. Jenna told Leigh that Aubrey was stunned when she encountered Elder Mason because, "it was HIS (Brother Mason's) son. Aubrey felt it was a direct answer to prayer because she was able to talk to Elder Mason for 25-30 minutes about his experience with cancer, chemo, faith, prayer, etc."

In that week's email to his mom -- and knowing nothing about Aubrey's fasting and prayers, or of his mom's conversation with Aubrey's mother-in-law -- he stated, "Yesterday was an INCREDIBLE day," and went on to describe the encounter in the store, "(Aubrey) looked at our name tags and said, 'Oh! You're Elder (Mason)!' ... (Aubrey's) mom was just given the six-months-to-live sentence. She has cancer too, and it is spreading. That is the majority of what we talked about. SO sad, and hard as we all know. Mom -- maybe you should get hold of her because she had a lot of questions about chemo and all that."

Elder Mason went on: "That was a crazy experience. The chances were one in a million that I was in the North area, at that Target, on that day, at that minute, to run into (Aubrey)."

It was a crazy experience. But it was not an unusual experience. It was yet another instance -- one among millions, billions -- when personal revelation was given.

Lives intersected in a simple but profound way. In a parking lot outside a Target a prayer was answered by a caring, loving Heavenly Father who knows the needs of his children and responds to them -- sometimes in dramatic ways -- in their times of need.