“Expecting Jesus”:

It should not surprise us,
but it often does
He comes to us in
the unexpected moment.

He, Our Lord, that is,
is not one who is
particularly discriminating
about where and how he chooses
to make himself known.

Who would think, for example,
that he would show up in
a straw filled manger in a stable?
Or that He would choose to be
hung up on the cross,
and there reveal Himself as Lord?
Or that He would choose to come
into view
beside a stream;
or at the bed of a sick man;
or in the home of a dying child;
or at the wedding feast;
or in the moment of a meal;
or even, perhaps,
in the middle of worship?

These are certainly unexpected moments
for our Lord to appear.
Unexpected for He appears where we
least expect Him –
or, humanly speaking,
it seems we should!!

In Sunday School we heard it
should be true.
That Jesus, Our Lord, came down to
love kids like me and you.

But we seem to have forgotten that He
doesn’t always choose,
the moments of convenience
like we would often do.

Rather He chooses the unexpected
the unique,
the times that He seems
furthest away.
The moments of sorrow,
the moments of joy.

The times we need Him most
to show His face
to offer grace,
to be there for us to depend upon.

He is here, in any event.
In times of need,
We should expect it.
For He has promised it.

In the unexpected moment.
He does really appear.
And is never is He very far away
from any of us!!

During these Twelve Days of Christmas,
and throughout the New Year,
I’m praying,
He will appear a time or two
or three or three hundred
in an unexpected moment.