A Season of the Unexpected

This past weekend we celebrated my youngest son’s birthday.  It’s hard to believe that Henry is already six years old.  It’s even harder to believe that he is living in his third home already (fourth if you count in utero.)  It’s also crazy to think about how our lives are in a much different place than we might have imagined six years ago.

At the time of his birth, we were expecting that within the next year we would be moving out of state for Steve to pursue his PhD full time.  When Henry’s second birthday rolled around, I was five months into my first solo appointment and was expecting that preaching every week would kill me (or drive me to an early retirement!)  As we celebrated age four, we were settled in and fully expecting that we would celebrate many, many of his birthdays in Brandon.  And now, with the big six under our belt, well, I’m not sure what to expect!

I thought about this as we marked the first Sunday of Advent this weekend.  We always talk about Advent as being a time of expectancy.  Yet, when you think about the Christmas story, it was more of a season of the UNexpected.  Mary and Joseph certainly didn’t expect to be parents before they were married—let alone parents of God’s son.  A bunch of average shepherds were in no way expecting a visit from a choir of angels as they sat in the field that night.  And even with the prophecies in mind, the people of Israel certainly weren’t expecting the Messiah to be born amidst the sounds and smells of animals. Yet God chose to work in unexpected ways through unexpected people in order to surpass all of our expectations by becoming one of us. 

I think this is one of those truths we need to be reminded of frequently because we all find ourselves experiencing the unexpected in life at some point or another.  Sometimes those unexpected places or situations are a welcomed surprise.  But other times…well, in those times we wish we’d had a little warning before receiving that phone call or that diagnosis or that tough conversation or choice to make.  We wish someone had told us we were going to find ourselves in the role of that unexpected person saying, “I never thought this would happen to me,” or “I never expected I’d be called upon to accept this challenge,” or “I never dreamed this would be part of my story.”

Yet it is in these times that we need to remember that we serve a God who works for good even through the unexpected (Romans 8:28).  We need to remember that we have a God whose thoughts and ways are far beyond ours (Isa. 55:9) and, as hard as that can be (especially if you’re a little more type A), it’s also a very good thing—a thing that reminds us of our constant need for God. 

Above all, we need to remember the very wise words from Proverbs 3:5-6, so that when life brings the UNEXPECTED, we won’t EXPECT to understand it right way.  Instead, we will trust that God continues to be our Emmanuel—to be WITH us—making our paths straight, our faith deepener and our lives blessed in unexpected ways.