The following fascinating story, which was recently told, vividly underscores this idea. There was a Yid, let's call him Reb Dovid, who would often travel abroad for business. He had a relative in a certain town whom he would visit every time he happened to be in that area. Although this relative was unfortunately not frum, he would cover his head with a Kappel in Reb Dovid's honour every time he came. Of course, from the way it sat on his relative's head, Reb Dovid was able to tell that he didn't usually wear it. Once, though, he noticed that the Kappel seemed quite in place on his relative. Intrigued, he gently inquired what had brought about this transformation.
In response, the relative recounted the following: "A few months ago, I was sitting out on the porch with my wife late afternoon, when suddenly we noticed throngs of people walking down the street. At first, we were mesmerised by this. Then, it dawned on me that it was Rosh Hashanah, and these people were on their way to Tashlich. On a whim, I decided to join them. Whilst I was there, a fellow yid holding a shofar came over to me, introduced himself as Ahron Katz and asked if I had heard Shofar yet, to which I replied in the negative. Immediately, he blew the Shofar for me, and then offered that if I ever feel the need, I could reach out to him.
Upon returning home, I related to my wife what had transpired. While we found this incident pleasantly surprising, my wife was particularly moved by the fact that this person was called Ahron Katz. Remarkably, she had a grandfather by exactly that name who served as the בעל תוקע in his shul.
We agreed that this must be a sign from Above, calling for us to return. The message penetrated and we immediately devoted ourselves fully. After a couple of weeks, I started wearing a Kappel regularly, and we are currently in the process of becoming fully observant."
Reb Dovid was moved by this story, though there was something that still bothered him. So the next time he was in Eretz Yisrael, he went in to Rav Chaim Kanievsky zt"l and presented his question. "If Hashem had wanted this relative to come back to his roots, why didn't he send this shaliach, Ahron Katz, earlier?"
Rav Chaim replied that while Hashem surely had wanted the relative to return, He needed the relative to take his first step. Only once the relative had shown his interest, through joining the people in reciting Tashlich, did He send Ahron Katz to blow Shofar for him, thus igniting the spark that ultimately brought him and his wife back to the right path.
Let us glean inspiration from our father Yaakov and do our bit to reach our goal. In doing so we will be accomplishing, if only in a very small way, the words of Chazal חַיָּב אָדָם לוֹמַר מָתַי יַגִּיעוּ מַעֲשַׂי לְמַעֲשֵׂי אֲבוֹתַי אַבְרָהָם יִצְחָק וְיַעֲקֹב - one must say 'when will my deeds reach the deeds of my forefathers Avraham, Yithchak and Yaakov?' (תנא דבי אליהו רבא פרק כ"ה). Through trying our utmost to perform the mitzvah - without worrying about the final outcome - we will b'ezras Hashem merit much success in fulfilling our mission with special assistance and support from our Father in Heaven.