Surprise!

We had a couple of surprises awaiting us as we walked around our apartment community yesterday afternoon.  As we came to the end of one stretch of sidewalk, I carefully guided my wife and her chair over the edge and was proceeding across the parking area when I heard a voice saying, “excuse me sir!”  When I stopped and turned to see who was calling to us I noticed that it was a gentleman of Indian descent who had been sitting in his car as we passed by.  He had noticed that my wife’s feet had come off of the stirrups on the transport chair and was concerned that she might hurt herself.

I thanked him profusely and explained that she always pops them out when we walk.  Sometimes I think that it is a little game that she plays with me when we walk!  On many occasions I will stop, come around to the front of her chair and gently place her feet back and then by the time I get up and around the chair she has pulled them out and is stretching them straight forward… with a slight grin on her face! 

After I had humorously informed the gentleman about this, he laughed and then asked what Piper’s name was and bent down to pet the dog, asking for her name as well, as she was tugging at her lease to get near him.  I normally keep her pretty tight at my side when we pass people as many folks around the apartments have tended to shy away from her.  Our new friend explained that his daughter has a pet dog and he many times will take care of the dog for her.  After we had a pleasant conversation we moved on to the sidewalk across the lot and walked a ways until we neared our building.

At that point we came across another older man who began to walk back toward his stairs and then suddenly stopped and waited for us to come by.  When we got to him, he said hello to my wife and bent down to touch her shoulder.  It was interesting that as we began to converse, my wife instantly responded to his kindness and reached out her hand to him.  He gently took her hand in his and held it for our entire conversation.  As it turns out we both had four kids and loved to camp with our families.

He asked about my wife’s condition and when we were about to move on, he said “you know… just pray every day for her!”  At his encouragement I smiled brightly and told him of our stand of faith.  In the midst of the conversation I also stated that I had been a pastor.  Then as we began to walk away he stopped and called back to us, repeated our names, committing them to memory and smiled.

As I said earlier, those two incidents surprised me and made my day at the same time as it was the first time that someone stopped us and initiated a conversation since we have been here.  When I was reading from the books of Mark and Matthew earlier today, I noticed a couple of times that Jesus was also surprised by something out of the ordinary.

Like I wrote about yesterday, Jesus was amazed or surprised, as the Contemporary English Version puts it, when He came into contact with the unbelief of His family and friends when He returned to His hometown.  On another occasion Jesus was surprised when He came face to face with the faith of an individual in whom He expected to find none!

In reference to His conversation with the Roman Centurion, Matthew reported that “When Jesus heard this, he was so surprised that he turned and said to the crowd following him, “I tell you that in all of Israel I’ve never found anyone with this much faith!” (Matthew 8:10 CEV)

According to my quick research, the word amazed or surprise is used 43 times in the gospels and Acts.  Of those, only the 2 incidents just mentioned speak of Jesus as the subject of the amazement.  It is interesting to note that both of the events concerned His reaction to people’s faith.  In one He expected to see faith and in the other He didn’t!

This got me to thinking about how Jesus responds to me.  Is He surprised when He expects to see faith in action in my life and doesn’t… and on the other hand… are there times when He doesn’t expect it and I surprise Him?  While a surprise can be a good thing, I kind feel that I would rather my life be a constant to Him and not a series of positive and negative surprises.  I would want Him to know that He can use me in any situation He needs me to be a part of without wondering how I will respond! 

It is obvious that our faith catches Jesus’ attention.  The Centurion’s faith literally made Jesus stop what He was doing and turn to tell His followers what had just happened!  I want to make sure that my faith is always within His range of vision… How about you?  I want to rest in the peace of knowing that my ever increasing trust in Him is something that He can always depend on… and not just be an occasional surprise to Him. 

So when Jesus looks at your life is He going to stop in surprise and exclaim to those around Him, “Geez!  Did you see that?”  Or will He simply smile and say: “See, I told you that he or she would respond that way!”  Have a super weekend.  Be a surprise to someone by reaching out in the love of Christ.  Stay in tune to His Word and keep asking yourself… “What or Whom am I expecting today?”