Surprise!

Yesterday I talked about enjoying the carpet of leaves that covered the grounds of the park-like setting of our housing community.  But there is a down side to the falling leaves, and that is that they also fall all over our patios!  I’m not sure if I mentioned it before, but raking leaves is one of my least favorite yard care activities (next to pulling weeds!)  Last year I finally had a revelation though!  Since our side patio, which sits directly under a large Oak, has a gate that leads to the front walkway, I realized that all I had to do was gather the leaves and then rake them right out the gate.  From there the landscape crews takes care of them during their weekly fall leave blowing expeditions through our neighborhood.  Ah…  Bliss again!

I try to time my patio raking to the usual day that the crew comes through our end of the development.  So my wife and the dog and I swung open the 2 sliders yesterday afternoon and forged through the leaves, beginning with the relatively few on the back patio and then the 4-5 inch layer on the side one.  Once I had a rather large pile, I opened the gate and moved the collection out front.  Before I closed the gate I stood in the doorway and examined our handy work.  As I viewed the twelve inches or more that we had just increased the groundcover of leaves by, I had the thought that this was just another example of the “far beyond any knowledge” of Christ’s love.  (Ephesians 3:19 God’s Word ©)  I’m not sure why, but there was something spectacular and wonderful about that unusually tall pile of leaves that I had made near the pathway that leads past the front of our home.  John Gill says that the love of Christ discussed in this verse “is durable and unchangeable; (it is) the greatest love that ever was heard of; it is matchless and unparalleled; It is exceeding strong and affectionate, and is wonderful and surprising.”

I liked the thought that God’s love for us is “wonderful and surprising!”  It reminds me of the daily wonders and surprises that we would share with each other when my wife and I were dating.  I always loved to surprise her with new, fun activities, gifts and places to explore.  She enjoyed surprising me with little books with poetry and scriptures about her love for me.  We just enjoyed the surprise of being with each other and seeing what wonderful things we could laugh about together!  (Ya know… some things never changed!)

 As Christians, God’s love for us should also be a wonderful and surprising foundation for our lives.  We should awake each and every day with a fresh anticipation of how He will surprise us with a wonderful expression of His love for us that day!  We should look forward to and be expectant of His loving us in a unique and special way in and through the regular events of our lives!  I am sure that this is the way He wants us to live.  He desires us to enjoy being with Him and seeing what wonderful things we can laugh about together throughout our day.

Now that kind of puts a whole new focus on our daily lives doesn’t it?  Have fun with Him today.  Stay in tune to His Word and keep asking yourself… “What SURPRISES am I expecting today?”