Expect the Unexpected

I thought I would be going to my Pilates class this morning, but received an email last night indicating we are done now until after Easter. So instead, this morning, I went alone round the old familiar dog walk trail behind ‘Jock’s’. 

A noisy, squawking flock of geese circled over the farm nearby. They weren’t travelling in their usual flexible V shape, just circling and communicating to each other. Unusual, I thought.

Suddenly a deer broke cover and leapt across the path. Gosh, Dusty would have responded like a shot in her old glory days. There was just me there today, though, noticing the grace and beauty of the roe deer as it bounded deeper into the woods. 

Coming home, I discovered that our B&B guests who were due to be here for six days had been moved on to Thurso by their company, so sheets were in the wash and we were re-calculating our week. Then we got an email saying replacement guys were coming for the other five nights of that booking. Up to remake the beds and ready the room.

Expect the unexpected. That’s always my attitude when travelling and I guess as life is a journey, too, it should be my attitude every day.

We’re coming up to Easter, and I’ve been reading the Easter story this morning. Although Jesus had advised the disciples that he would rise again on the third day, nobody expected it. The women who went to the tomb on the Sunday morning expected to find the mangled, dead body of the leader they loved and had followed all over Israel. They had the herbs and spices and expected to be tenderly washing and caring for Jesus’ body. 

They were so unprepared for a resurrection that Mary asked the ‘gardener’ who had taken away the body. Of course, the gardener was Jesus, and Mary was the first to encounter him and then race off to share the good news – the staggering news – the completely unexpected news – that Jesus, who had died a humiliating, agonising, very public death on the Friday, had risen and was walking around in a brand new, resurrection body.

Expect the unexpected. I wasn’t expecting an encounter with God the night he came in power and love and overwhelmed and transformed me. 

As I go out today, I want to be open and alert for the unexpected. Ours is a God of surprises.