Surprise!
Moses in the account from the Book of Exodus is surprised to see the bush before him was aflame yet not consumed. So surprised was he that he needed to go over and “look at this remarkable sight and see why the bush is not burned.”
Surprise is a response from within, aroused by an experience external to us. We are caught unawares, and for a moment, at least, we are vulnerable, open, receptive, to that which has come from ‘out of the blue’.
Some don’t like to be surprised. Maybe because we want to be in control, to have life according to our plans and expectations. Surprise can evoke any number of physical responses: a scream of delight or fear, a bout of laughter, a faint, a moment of aggression; fight or flight.
Of course there can be surprises which we enjoy, and surprises which we don’t. Surprises can be delighted in, and surprises can change our very lives and living. Gerard Hughes wrote the spiritual book, ‘The God of Surprises’, and Pope Francis in his first Easter Vigil homily twelve years ago said, said, Do not be afraid of the God of surprises, “he always surprises us!”
I remember walking through a field of parched grass, not a green blade in sight. So barren, so lifeless. And there, nearly unseen to my eyes, the most delicate and bright purple flower. I stopped, I knelt down, and I gazed at this gift of nature. A drop of colour, in the midst of the lifeless dry. And there my eyes were drawn to the hive of activity which was happening through the arid grasses. This field was not dead, save for this single flower, rather the field was overflowing with life. I had been blind to what surrounded me, unseeing. The surprise of the flower enabled me to be surprised by life unknown yet abundant.
Moses is surprised by God, as he who was shepherding sheep comes to shepherd God’s people, the flock of Israel. What will surprise us, each of us, during this Lenten time? Could it be that there are not ‘good’ or ‘bad’ surprises. Rather such moments are invitations to recognise that God is in our midst, bringing us beyond the lives that we live, to the life that Jesus desires us to live with him, in new ways, unexpected, surprising.
With prayers, patrick
