BIG Surprise!

My 3-year old granddaughter came home from her first day of preschool and announced with great delight, “Mama, BIG Surprise!” She then reached down the neck of her dress and pulled out a family photograph – the same photograph that she had brought to school that morning and was supposed to leave at school, at the request of a teacher clearly planning some kind of welcome banner. The only wrench in this teacher’s plan was a little girl who considered it an injustice to leave her photo in a strange new classroom.

This Advent season I am thinking about God’s BIG Surprise. How preposterous the notion that the creator of all, the one who has no beginning and no end – visited our planet as a helpless baby. Born to a peasant girl, revealed to lowly shepherds, found in an obscure town, nestled among barn animals. He went on to live a sinless life and then die a criminal’s death, culminating with the biggest of all surprises, rising from the dead and granting new life and hope to all who believe.

So this Advent, as we pray for those whose hair is falling out in clumps, as we grieve for those whose laughter will never be heard this side of eternity, let us take heart. The God of BIG Surprises can orchestrate hope and healing. For Advent led to Christmas and Christmas to Easter. Suffering to Joy. Despair to hope. Stable smells to heavenly dancing.

As that preschool teacher came up one photo short that day, think about God holding your own life close to his chest, bringing you home, cherished and fully loved.