How were your expectations met over the Holidays?
Maybe your Christmas with family, which you were dreading, turned out to be quite pleasant or the opposite was the case.
Maybe you were so looking forward to an upcoming encounter with someone but it turned out to be a disappointment.
Maybe, you had big New Year’s plans for your health or your spiritual life but by Jan. 8 they have already come crashing down.
Maybe, your job situation, which you expected to be largely the same, has been turned upside down.
I know it is the second week in January but I still can’t shake the Christmas story. The whole story is full of the unexpected. From the revelation of the coming child to Mary to the arrival of the Magi, to the trek to Egypt, the Christmas story is about unfamiliar turns. And out of these ordinary happenings, God seems to be working the most in the unexpected.
Life is full of unfamiliar pathways. We know this because the unfamiliar has happened to us over and over. We know this because we see people around us faced with the unexpected or a dramatic turn in their life. The unexpected is to be expected. Yet, we let these moment throw us off so often. Questions pop up about everything and we start to ask God if he really knows what he is doing?
If I look back on my own life, though, these unexpected times are when I notice God the most. Yet, in most cases, I would prefer some consistency and predicted outcomes. God has his own predicted outcomes and we should be longing for those instead of trusting in our own schedule, plan, or devices.
Whatever God’s plans are for you this year, may you, and I, be ready for the unexpectedly expected goodness of Him who works in the unfamiliar.
photo credit: hermanturnip
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