Expect the Unexpected

December 14, 2021

Advent 2021

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A few years ago I visited Yellowstone National Park, a landscape of unique, alien beauty: geysers gushing out the ground, dangerous acidic pools, hot springs, and full of creatures roaming the grounds. I felt as if I were on another planet, far removed from the familiar land I was used to in the Midwest, surrounded by uncommon flora and fauna.

It was a place of unexpected and surreal beauty. It’s also unexpected to read in Isaiah 35 of someone who is blind being able to see, and deaf ears able to hear. It’s unimaginable to think of the lame leaping and mute tongues speaking. I want to believe that water can gush forth from a desert and a desert can become a pool of refreshing water. I want to believe the unimaginable—but it’s hard sometimes in the midst of difficult life circumstances, where a solution or a healing or some way forward looks next to impossible.

I heard an author and speaker say recently that we suffer from an “impoverished imagination”. In other words, if we can’t imagine it, then it can’t be possible. Yet that’s the exact thing we’re reading in this passage—impossibilities—and we’re told that these unbelievable, seemingly impossible things will be true one day, and we should expect it.

Life here on earth already seems like a miracle, when I consider how much could go wrong and how I’m able to breathe and take another step each day, and how this earth keeps spinning with some sort of controlled plan in place that I can’t fully comprehend. Yet we’re told here in these few words that we can expect even more than this. We can expect the unexpected, the miraculous, the complete opposite of what we’re used to everyday.

I want to see dry ground bursting forth and wilderness singing around me in abundance and celebration. Wow! I can’t imagine it—but it helps me to know that a day of rejoicing and healing awaits that is unimaginable—and it’s what this season and Christ’s birth is all about.

For Personal Reflection: What unexpected joys have you witnessed or heard of in your lifetime? What steps can we take to grow our “impoverished imaginations” to believe the impossible?

✧ Nativity Building: Bring your sheep figures close to the shepherd figures. The shepherds were keeping watch at night when they heard the news about Baby Jesus! They would be among the first to put their faith in Jesus.