Surprised By God, At Christmas

At the heart of the Christmas is surprise!

Probably none was more surprised than Joseph, Son Of David.   I mean, imagine:  the women you’re engaged to is pregnant, but the pregnancy is not yours, because you haven’t been sexually intimate.  But then God shows up in the form of an angel in dream, and says:  “…  ‘Joseph son of David do not be afraid to take Mary…as your wife because what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit…[And] when Joseph woke up, he did what the angel…had commanded him…”  (Matthew 1:20; 24). 

Amazing!  First, Joseph gets shocking information:  his wife’s pregnant, but not by him; now, he get’s unbelievable information:  his wife’s pregnant, and the ‘other man’ is none other than, God!!  But Joseph ‘hangs in there,’ open to God’s surprise and new, supernatural, information.

But that's our God:  He loves to surprise, disturbing forgone conclusions, interrupting established plans.

Recently, I did an unusual thing:  I drank coffee in a coffee shop other than Starbucks.  Now you need to know I'm a Starbucks fanatic, so to drink coffee elsewhere was very much out of my routine.  Well in due course, a women from my congregation came into the 'alien' coffee shop, clearly distraught.  And so I moved in her direction, discovered the problem, and then, through God's grace, was able to help.  

But here's the best part:  this woman didn't want to be in the 'alien' coffee shop either; normally her routine was for her to go to Denny's. But as she stopped at the stop light right in front of the 'alien' coffee shop, she got a leading:  turn left toward the coffee shop; don’t go to Denny’s!!  And the rest as they say is history, as both of us were touched, and a God-moment occurred!    

God wants God moments to happen throughout the Christmas season!  But God moments only occur as we too allow ourselves to be surprised, to be interrupted by new, supernatural, information.  

And so allow yourself to be surprised!  Along with prophet Isaiah affirm:  “I shall hear [the]word behind me, saying: “This is the way, walk in it,” [whether I’m attempting to] turn to the right, or the left.”  Isaiah 30:21.