Surprises

I was standing at a window in the office yesterday. I was surprised to see a clown, rolling down the sidewalk on some kind of brightly colored scooter or motorized wheelchair. I just stood there, dumbstruck. A clown. Just traveling down the sidewalk. He stopped - who knows why - maybe his big shoes were in the way, and he needed an adjustment. It took me a full minute to think, "Camera!"

I grabbed the camera, but it was too late to get a good picture.

I'm reading Nancy Ortberg's book Looking for God. I've finished four chapters so far, and I would recommend it. In the Introduction, she says:

I've fought hard to find this faith I've longed for, this God I've imagined. And I have found him in the most unexpected places. Surprises have clarified for me who God is, and I've found that challenging the prescriptive path has actually opened up the God of the Bible to me. As my understanding of God has grown, my faith has also grown -- sometimes in ways that interfere with my life.

Then later that day, I read a statement on the blog Visual Voice that stopped me:

Miracles are everywhere -- trust their emergence

What do you think of the idea that we can find God when we allow him to surprise us? When we travel paths to him which are not tried and true, but are knew and unexpected? Do we trust that miracles are everywhere?

Are we willing to travel a path, expecting that it will lead to God, even if we don't have a map and can't see the outcome?

When we find God, will we stand there with shock on our faces, or will we smile and say, "Welcome. I was expecting to find you even though I didn't know where you were."

Thomas said to him, "Lord, we don't know where you are going, so how can we know the way?" Jesus answered, "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. If you really knew me, you would know my Father as well. From now on, you do know him and have seen him." John 14:5-7