Unexpected

God is unexpected. I like to think and plan in my head, how I think things should go. But walking with God for all these years, He’s completely unexpected. What I think should happen, almost never does. God always has a better plan.

I think of when I wanted a mini van to haul our kids and their friends around in. We didn’t have the money, so I started praying for one. A couple of months later, one of our cars is stolen. Completely unexpected. I was praying to get a mini van, not to get our car stolen! It turns out, God knew exactly what He was doing. The car that got stolen was a lemon. We thought it was the good car. But it wasn’t. It was also a newer car, so we got money from our insurance when it got stolen. It all worked out that we ended up with a new mini van. But getting our car stolen was not exactly how I saw that.

When Jesus walked the planet, the Jews and even the disciples were thrilled that He had come. They thought He would overthrow the Roman Empire and become King. They were very excited about this. And then the unexpected happened. Jesus was brought to trial. He was accused and given over to be crucified! Die? He can’t die. How will He be King if He dies? This isn’t the plan. He can’t die!

But He did die. He was crucified. The disciples scrambled to get away, they thought they were next. Their dreams of overthrowing the Roman Empire-gone! Jesus died and was buried in a tomb. The disciples were completely confused. What would they do now? Their Messiah was dead. He had taught them so much. And for what? He was dead. For three days they agonized over His death. This wasn’t supposed to be the plan.

And then, the unexpected happened! He rose from the dead! Jesus came back to life and walked out of the tomb! He came back to the disciples. Thomas didn’t even believe it. He wanted to see the nail prints in His hands before he would believe. So Jesus reappeared and showed Thomas the nail prints in His hands. Now Jesus was alive.

God is the God of the unexpected. We see it one way, but God usually has other plans. We think we know how it should go, but we can’t see ahead. We can’t see the big picture. So just when you think you’ve reached the end of your rope. Just when you think you’ve had too much, God will come in and do something completely unexpected. When we can’t see it for what it is or predict how it’s going to turn out, then you can place the outcome completely on God’s shoulders. You turn around and look back and see God’s fingerprints all over your situation. God is completely unexpected. So put your faith and trust in the One who can see it all, knows it all, and is powerful. His ways are not our ways, and that’s a really good thing.