Surprising God

I took a walk in the park this afternoon with a camera. As I was walking, I was thinking that there just wasn't that much to photograph -- everything is great, no flowers, no water except the creek. Just kind of ho-hum.

Steve caught up with me after his walk to the train and around, and we headed back to the cars. As we neared the fountain, he said, "Look. There's a parrot." I didn't catch what he said at first; I was trying to photograph a flower, so he said it again.

And there was a parrot on the fountain at the park.

As I think about it, it's a little bit like God.

• To find the parrot, I had to make the effort to go to the park, belieiving that something was there that I needed to see.
• I didn't find him on my own; it took someone pointing him out to me. Sometimes finding God is like that -- we need others to point the way.
• In my own preoccupation, I would have missed him. What distracts me from God? What busy-ness in my life keeps me from seeing?
• It was a surprise. Who expects to find a parrot in the park?

God is like that sometimes. We have to believe enough to see him. Sometimes we have to rely on our friends to point him out, and sometimes he's a surprise -- he doesn't appear in the way we would expect him to.

Watch out. He's there.