Tonight I am thinking about God's little surprises. Today for example, I was expecting to sit 6 hours for stem cell collection from the catheter they placed in my chest this morning. And again tomorrow morning, and the next, and the next. We were anticipating 3-5 days of this. (Oh, and once they hook you up, you can't get up to go to the toilet. The portable bedside potty like I had to use for Covid is your only option. But somewhere between the three and four hour mark, they told me I was done. Surprise! (And right before I needed that nasty bedside potty too- thank you God!) In the end, they told me that they had collected 6.56 million Stem Cells out of a target of 2.5 million. So I get to go home tomorrow.
Sometimes God surprises us out of the blue, just when we need it. I had a dear friend years ago, who was having a really rough day. Then her parents surprised her with a beautiful pair of shoes. It made her day. And yesterday, friends of ours asked my wife and I to be god-parents. ABSOLUTELY! That made mine.
Sometimes God gives us BIG surprises, like in Ruth chapter 3, where confirmed bachelor Boaz eats a big meal, has a few drinks, and lies down for the night. He wakes up to find a woman lying down next to him! It's the beautiful young widow Ruth, who proposes to him on the spot. Oh my goodness! It was almost too good to be true! (Exactly how much did he have to drink earlier?) A very nice surprise indeed.
Sometimes God surprises us, not with an item, or a person, but with a decision going our way, against all the odds. Proverbs 21:1 tells us,
The king's heart is in the hand of the LORD,
he directs it like a watercourse wherever he pleases.
The bible is full of such examples, such as the rebuilding of the Temple and Jerusalem, enabled by decrees of kings Cyrus, Artaxerxes and Darius, (Ezra 6:14) and even FUNDED by those kings, even when it went against their interests.
And you know, sometimes the surprise is babies! When Isaac was born to Abraham and Sarah in their old age, they laughed. Babies are so cute. And funny! So much so that Sarah named her baby Isaac-- "laughter" (Genesis 21:6), because he made her laugh so. (As did the absurdity of her situation as a REALLY old lady with a newborn!) I guess you could call this surprise Joy as well. And you gotta love a happy baby!
I realize I have rambled in this post, but let's each take a moment to thank God for His many blessings-- especially the surprises!
Pete, this is Sean Boyd, your Falcon 16 fish bud. My Talon 12, class of 91, buds have been sharing and updating your news and posts since earlier this year. So, I've been sending your prayer needs to my prayer team at Brooklyn Resurrection Church. It's a reformed Presbyterian Church and currently I'm an inactive Elder. I'm so glad that our Eternal Savior has spared you from numerous days of suffering. Your miracle post reminds me when the Apostles hadn't caught any fish all night and then Jesus tells them throw their nets on the right side and then they caught an over abundance of fish. Just like the fish were gathered by God to be caught at a par…
What a blessing Pete! Keep going. Keep writing.
This read reminds me how often I have had to face difficult times and didn't want to walk through them. Sometimes we have no choice but to walk through. There is nowhere else to go! I drag my feet and have a little internal fit as I rebel against whatever it is I'm pushing against. Then, as if pushed against my will, I end up facing it. What I've found is that most of the time the outcome is not as bad as my fears made it out to be. Go figure. In my head my problems are like nightmares; in reality they're not nightmares, just a different reality than I would like.