Our God is a god of surprises. Are your eyes open to His surprises?
This year, I began a plan to read through the Bible in 90 days. I am about a third of the way to the goal (and a few days behind). Among several things that has stood out to me is how often God surprised His people. When God told Abraham he would have a son, Sarah, his wife, broke out into laughter, “Now when I am worn out and (Abraham) is old, will I have this pleasure?” A year later, she held her son in her arms and named him Isaac, which means “laughter.” Surprise!
The stories of God’s surprises fill the pages of Scripture: Noah’s ark, Moses and the burning bush, the Israelites’ wealth as they left Egypt, a shepherd chosen to be king, a slingshot brings down a giant; and on the list continues.
It is interesting to note that not all God’s surprises seem to be good. Joseph must have been surprised when God allowed his brothers to sell him into slavery or when Potiphar sent him to prison or when Pharoah’s butler forgot Joseph’s kindness to him. Joseph had to have asked God, “Why?” and “Where are You?” Yet those painful surprises ultimately led to the greatest surprise of all when Joseph was made second to Pharoah.
The most amazing and wonderful surprise of all is Jesus—His life, His death, His resurrection and what that means for us! God did for us what we never could do for ourselves. If that were the only surprise God gave us, it would be more than we could have imagined—certainly more than we deserve!
Another surprise I have seen so clearly the past 30 days is His promise: “I will be with you!” It is repeated again and again in the pages of Scripture. More amazing is that I have experienced that promise personally—those wonderful moments when I know God is with me, doing something only He could have orchestrated. As was Joseph, I also have been surprised by the painful, unfair, negative things God has allowed to happen to me. Yet even then He has been with me, sometimes doing much more than I could see at the time.
My wife, Barbara, lives each day looking for God’s surprises. She sees the smallest things as surprises from God: a deer at the window, a hummingbird on a flower, the chance meeting of a friend, a verse read in the morning that applies to an event in the afternoon…She also has learned to see God’s presence and His plan in the hard surprises. Barbara is convinced God is big enough that He can weave good through the painful, and that allows her to live a radically thankful life. I am learning from her.
Look for God’s surprises all around you. They are there, great and small—the surprise of a Savior, Jesus Christ, and the surprise of sunrise. God loves to surprise His children and to hear our laughter. Have you laughed in surprise lately?
