E-votional - Surprise
October 8, 2002
Verse:

"Then he went and washed and came back able to see."

John 9:7 (NRSV)

Thought:

    Each year we look forward to our birthday. It is a time for celebration and excitement. Friends and family gather to share in the day recognized as our day of birth. There is not much surprise, unless deceit is used. You know the day is your birthday. You know someone will congratulate you. If there is to be a surprise, it usually comes in the form of a special visitor or present. Yet there is something about a birthday that secretes excitement and celebration. You know it is coming, but . . .. Maybe the unknown element is a combination of expectation and the surpassing of that expectation? Perhaps, this is the element, the variable that makes a surprise different than a typical experience.

Hear the Good News, our walk with God, our journey with Christ is filled with surprises. Our life with Christ as our savior, our life as Christ in our midst exceeds any and all expectations of the life we own. Watching our child dance to the music on the radio, experiencing the tears of joy which originate through indefinable love, and even the startling cry of an infant every three hours in the middle of the night, reminding those who have ears, "I am here", these are elements of life which surpass expectations. We can read about the experience, but it is not until we own it, that we can effectively understand the fundamental, irreducible constituent of the experience. The joy. The surprise. Jesus tells the man who was blind from birth, to wash in the pool of Siloam, after smearing dirt and spit. What a surprise he was in store for. Are you ready for the spit and the dirt?.

Prayer: 

   Gracious Father, we walk through life blinded in different ways, often times not even realizing it. Walk upon me and offer sight to me. Surprise me in my walk and enable me to grow in my faith. I know Your presence will surpass my wildest expectations. Therefore, let me share all You have done in my life, that I might sing Your praises and honor You. Thank You for all that You have done in my life and all You will continue to do, for ask this through Christ, my Lord and Savior. Amen.