‘Surprise’

12/18/2018

I Was Thinking…

Did you see the article in last Wednesday’s AJC about the flood in Westonnen, Germany? Floods are terrible messes that bring great devastation. Floods require months and, in some cases, years of recovery. I have shared in recovery efforts after devastating floods…it is a painful process for those surprised by rising waters.

However, the flood in Westonnen, Germany is a flood that I would have enjoyed…maybe you too. You see just before 8 PM on Monday, December 10 liquid chocolate began streaming out of the Drei Meister chocolate factory. A tank at the factory had overflowed, prompting a river of chocolate to breach the factory ground and ooze onto West strasse, the nearest road.

Soon, the leaked liquid chocolate-about a ton in all-solidified in the crisp December air, creating something of a magical carpet that blanketed West strasse. “A ten-square-meter choco-pancake formed,” the fire department explained in a statement that warned chocolate lovers to “stay strong” before reading about the incident.

Comparisons to “Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory” were inevitable, with one-person tweeting “Willy Wonka, that you?” The fire department said the road was cleared “with shovels and muscle power”.

Shovels and muscle power? If I had been there, I would have volunteered to assist with the clean-up with a spoon! I can only imagine the surprise of flowing chocolate down the street. For those chocolate lovers of the world, it must have seemed like ‘Christmas’ arriving early.

Christmas is a time of surprise. From the very beginning, a babe born in a cave and placed in a feeding trough was a bigger surprise than chocolate flowing down any street. That God has always chosen to do things in unexpected and surprising ways should not surprise us anymore. Yet all too often we attempt to impose our ways onto God’s ways…and we wonder why we are often not only surprised but frustrated.

Let’s pay attention to the surprise this Christmas. Not just the surprise of a gift to unwrap but the surprise of a God that sets the agenda of saving the world in surprising ways. Where might God surprise us this Christmas and into 2019? This surprise is far more valuable than Willy Wonka’s golden ticket. Enjoy chocolate this Christmas…may it remind you of something far sweeter…T’is so sweet to trust in Jesus…a babe born in a surprising place to a surprised couple for the purpose to surprise us all with peace on earth, good will to all humankind!

Always Thinking…