Surprise!

Easter brought a lot of surprises to a lot of people. For instance, the biblical Mary mistook the Risen Christ for the local gardener. Surprise! King Herod, the one who murdered Jesus, thought he had everything under control after he took Jesus off the cross and put his body in a tomb. Surprise! Two people walking to the village of Emmaus, talking about the sadness of the day: Jesus was dead. A stranger joins them on the road. Surprise!

To be honest with you, the traditional celebration of Easter is missing the element of Surprise! because we know the outcome. Church leaders try hard to foster a sense of Surprise! in congregants, and we engage in the ritual, but I know the end of the story. So, today is the Monday after Easter. I’ve put away the Easter decorations, my Easter bonnet with all the frills upon it, and I climb back on the treadmill of reality.
And, as part of my morning meditation, I read one of my favorite authors, Mark Nepo. Look at this!
“Life is surprising, thank God, and God, the chance to know Oneness, lives in surprise. For God is seldom in our plans, but always in the unexpected.” Do you see what that means? The reality of Easter is not necessarily in the ritual, but in the routine of my days. One mark of a follower of Jesus is the willingness to be surprised. I encourage you to live in a sense of Easter Expectancy. Because just when you think you have everything organized, labeled and filed…Surprise! Easter living begins today with the discovery, the encounter, the realization. Keep one eye open for the unexpected. And you’ll still be surprised.

Was that…..? No, probably not. Well, maybe. SURPRISE!