The other morning I hopped into my Ford F150 to start the day.

When the onboard computer systems were a go, and the radio fired up, my SiriusXM was tuned to a station that I never, ever listen to. Some pop music channel I’d never heard of.

Weird, right?

Then on came a rap/reggae tune that my brother who passed in April absolutely loved! But, I’ll skip the song title to spare judgement of his musical tastes!

Maybe not such a great story to anyone else, but the thing is … it was the morning of his birthday!

So, sometime between when I shut off my truck the night before, and when I got back in 12 hours later, the satellite radio service was tuned to a station I never listen to so that I would hear a song my brother loved … on the morning of his birthday.

Doubly (triply?) weird, right?

Unless you believe like me that our saints commune with us all the time if we just take the time to notice. … For context, in our Lutheran tradition, we refer to all those who pass before us as saints, which is a much different definition than the popular understanding of the word.

Now, I know that many steeped in Westernized Christianity and the post-modern secularization that has influenced it, might think my story a mere coincidence and that my belief that those who have died have the ability to communicate with us as hooey.

Others reading this, though, especially those in indigenous cultures, or who may come from southern hemisphere cultures would say, “Well, duh, our ancestors and spirits are an integral part of our lives. Your story is cool!”

And I fall in their camp.

In the West, we’ve trivialized the notion that there could be a parallel dimension in which our departed loved ones, or saints, may coexist. Call it “heaven,” if you will. … And possibly, at times, those worlds may intertwine.

But look through the Bible, and I think there is ample evidence that our Jewish and early Christian brethren also believed that we could visit with our beloved saints. … I mean, Jesus, himself went up the mountain to converse with Moses and Elijah during his transfiguration, right?

Our departed brother liked to play the role of trickster! I am certain that he got a hoot out of greeting me the other morning with his favorite Shaggy tune on his birthday!

And I for one am grateful that we have the ability to commune with our beloved saints who go before us. They often bring me great comfort and reassure me that this world doesn’t have the final word. Amen.

Devlyn Brooks is the CEO of Churches United in Moorhead, Minn., and an ordained pastor in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America serving Faith Lutheran Church in Wolverton, Minn. He blogs about faith at findingfaithin.com, and can be reached at devlynbrooks@gmail.com.