Surprise!

 January 2, 2022

My kids think I’m a bit goofy, and I don’t suppose I can blame them. For the past couple of weeks, I’ve been thinking about it, and this morning, I took the plunge. There is a backstory to this tale, which I will divulge now, unlike the story of when I first tasted Mountain Dew or saw the Three Stooges. The mockery of my sons forty years ago as I was about to regale them with that saga forever sealed the story within the vaults of my personal memory. But I digress.

The year was 1976, our nation’s bicentennial. A friend from church, a Mr. Covel by name, dared me to grow a beard. I said I would if he would. He has to admit that his attempt was pretty pathetic; his facial fur was scattered across the landscape like he had the mange. I, on the other hand, was able to produce a pretty bushy growth that managed to remain in place in one form or another ever since. Until a few weeks ago.

As I said, this morning, I took the plunge. Off it came! All of it, no less! People’s reactions have been priceless. It took Linda about twenty minutes to notice; one of the grandchildren said, “I knew there was something strange about you!” Of course, that could be said even apart from the change in my facial fuzz.

All four of the women in my life (wife, daughter, daughters-in-law) said, “You look just like your mother!” Now, my mother was a wonderful woman, and in her youth was quite a beauty, but I’m not sure how to take this comment, other than the general consensus was for me to cover my face again ASAP, which leads me to this little ditty I learned years ago:

“I know my face ain’t no star,

But I don’t mind it,

‘Cause I’m behind it; 

It’s the folks in front get the jar.”

Sudden changes are part of life. I’ve been planning a mission trip to Cuba; pastor Joe and I even made a video announcement about it, inviting people to participate by donating over the counter medicines and vitamins, which are unavailable but so much needed there. This afternoon, I received a call from the young man organizing and coordinating things for this trip. The Cuban government just instituted new Covid restrictions for travel into the country—vaccination, eight days’ quarantine, and a negative Covid test. They are also on the verge of completely locking down the country again, forbidding any gatherings of people outside of immediate family. 

The quarantine would require us to stay in a government hotel at increased expense, with no guarantee we would afterwards be able to do the work we had planned. So the decision was made to postpone for a few weeks and re-evaluate later. Linda was nervous about me going, so this was clearly an answer to our prayers for wisdom and guidance.

Then later this evening we get a call from our friend Verna, whose husband passed away in November. Their small church was on the verge of closing. Today was to have been their last Sunday, but visitors showed up. It turns out that they had been led of the Lord to visit, and that their ministry was to help small churches stay open until they could secure a pastor. We praised God together that he sent this couple, that the church will remain open, and Verna doesn’t have to endure another loss in her life.

My point in all this? There are lots of surprises in life, but nothing takes God by surprise; as a matter of fact, he is often behind them. The only part of today’s surprises that were humanly engineered was the one I inflicted on myself and my family. And the universal consensus is that only God’s surprises are worth keeping. I can live with that.