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.

A Bucketful of Water

This morning I received the sad, though expected, news that another of my cousins passed away last night. I didn’t know him well but he was younger than me and somehow it has made me feel sad and slightly world-weary. It is what happens, I know, but he is the second of my cousins to pass away within the last few months, and it feels achingly poignant and sad.

So I spent time with God, thinking through a couple of the more well-known of the stories of Jesus. First, his walking on the water episode on the Sea of Galilee, when Peter asked if he could join Jesus and Jesus replied, ‘Come!’ Which was all very well until Peter lost his nerve, lost his focus, and started to sink. 

OK, I got the point. Hold my nerve, keep focused on Jesus, and don’t let the buffeting winds and choppy waves scare me. Easier said than done, but with God’s help, possible.

Then, as I prayed and thought through next week’s healing service which we call The Well, the Lord blessed me with a very vivid prayer picture. I ‘saw’ Jesus and myself standing by a well, peering down into its depths. As I watched, Jesus began drawing the bucket up, which banged from side to side, spilling and splashing cold, refreshing water everywhere. As it neared the top of the well, I expected Jesus to carefully fill a cup and hand it to me, thirsty and weary as I felt.

Instead, he took hold of the bucket and splashed its contents right in my face, laughing as he did so. I thought I was responding with how fun that was when I recognised that actually, I hate having water thrown in my face and so in the picture, I was recoiling and turning aside to avoid it hitting me. I wasn’t laughing.

How often do I miss the joy and fun that Jesus wants me to share in, because of fear, of dislike, of grumpiness? How often do I remain unrefreshed in his presence because I fail to allow him to splash me with his reviving water?

My prayer today is that I will remain focused and turned to Jesus and not turn away when he surprises me with blessings in ways I don’t expect. That’s my prayer for you, too.