A God of Surprises
March 28th, 2008 Posted in A Sense of Call, Growth, Spirituality, Theology
“The high spots of my life present themselves in retrospect as a series of surprises.”
So writes one of my favorite authors, 67 years a Christian, J. I. Packer (author of the best selling book Knowing God) His recent article in Christianity Today Magazine (March 2008) describes the various turning points in his life that were unplanned on his part, but apparently not unplanned on God’s part. He goes on to state that “believers serve a God of happy surprises.”
It occurred to me once while reflecting on the miracles of Jesus that virtually all of them were not planned by Jesus. The miracles happened when Jesus met people who were in need. As far as we can tell He didn’t plan on meeting the people, it just happened. Jesus’ life was filled with surprises that He took advantage of, surprises from the Heavenly Father.
I prefer to plan ahead and don’t care for a day with a lot of surprises. That’s going to limit what God can do with my days! Apparently God likes to plan surprises. In other words, He likes to plan for me what I haven’t planned for myself! I don’t know if I’ve ever heard it put this way but it seems to me that part of faith is a willingness to be flexible!
Dave
(Photo is of our grandson Casey)
