The day World War II ended, September 2, 1945, Edwin Asimakoupoulos of Lewiston, ID, was just 19 years old—a Marine corporal stationed on the battleship Missouri.

We can only imagine the thrill that surged through every sailor, officer, and dignitary present that historic day—relief that the long war was finally over, awe at being in the presence of Gen. Douglas MacArthur, and wonder at witnessing the formal Japanese surrender on the deck of that mighty battleship.

But Edwin had one more reason for excitement. He’d been assigned to escort the Russian General who signed the document for the USSR. Ordered to remain on watch, Edwin crouched just 20 feet away above the turret gun deck—close enough to see history unfold.

At one point, a loud crash broke the reverent silence. Turning quickly, Edwin caught sight of a sheepish cameraman scrambling to recover dropped equipment. Then, like everyone else, he turned back to the moment at hand.

Twenty years later—in 1965—Edwin sat in a Wenatchee, WA barber shop, idly flipping through an American Legion magazine commemorating the war’s end.

And there it was. A photo he had never seen. A photo of the Japanese surrender. A photo in which he appeared—tucked in the lower right corner.

Edwin was the only person in the frame looking back—his head had turned the very instant the photographer dropped that camera.

According to his son, Greg Asimakoupoulos: “Dad had no idea that photograph even existed. Let alone—that he was in it! Isn’t that a cool Godwink?”

Thousands of people had stared at that famous photo over the years and asked the same question: Who’s that young guy—the only one looking back at us?

SQuire Rushnell and Louise DuArt, husband and wife authors of the Godwink series, remind us that each of us wonders where we fit into life’s grand puzzle. And sometimes, in the most unexpected ways, we discover that we’ve been divinely aligned with just the right spot—at just the right moment—to play our part. That’s always a Godwink.

That’s exactly what happened to Edwin Asimakoupoulos. A 19-year-old Marine, frozen in time, standing out from the crowd—looking back at us across history.

Rushnell and DuArt’s latest book is Godwinks on Moms.