Unexpected Challenges

Christmas is fast approaching and maybe you have found yourself listening to and telling stories you have heard a thousand times before. These familiar tales bring joy and laughter as you remember the moment like it was yesterday.

So here is one of mine.  Some of you may have heard it before, make no mind, listen and laugh with me or at me as my momma used to say.

As Christmas comes many of us have probably generated a wish list of sorts.  Things we would like to receive for gifts.  In fact, some of you might even say that I am getting x, y, and z for Christmas even though Christmas hasn’t even arrived..   Others, like me, may even have a wish list of things that you know you won’t be getting, but you ask for them every year just in case.  

But have you ever received something that you did not expect or did not anticipate, and possibly did not even want?  30+ years ago, when I was still in college, I made my wish list very clear.  The only thing I would tell people that I wanted for Christmas was a very specific new fishing reel.

I knew I was going to get it because it was the only thing I asked for and it was within the usual price range of gifts.  I even found the present under the tree that I knew it had to be.

As Christmas morning came, I was excited and ready to open this present.  Even more exciting than this was that my mom kept telling me that this particular present was not even my main gift.  I didn’t know what else to expect but I was ready to receive, and more than that I was ready to go fishing.

As we began to open the gifts, my mom had devised a strategy of opening up one present at a time, so we could all share in the joy of giving and receiving.  I actually, do the same thing with my kids today. My mom and had a numbering system that only she knew and of course she made us wait till the end for our main gift.

Finally, I got to the box that I was eagerly waiting for and ripped off the wrapping paper and there before my eyes was a brand new VCR rewinder. (pause) I was completely confused and I thought for sure my mom had given me somebody else’s gift.  My entire family could see my confusion, so they all told my mom to let me open the next gift.  She agreed and pulled out this other slightly bigger box and I opened it only to find a rebuilt VCR.  My main present, my last present a VCR. 

This is embarrassing to even mention, but I was so disappointed that I closed the box and slide it back under the tree with a few very unthankful remarks about the gift.  Had my reaction not been so over the top it would have ruined Christmas for everyone, but because it was so extreme my family told me how ridiculous I was being and went on to enjoy the rest of their morning while I sat on the other side of the room sulking.  

Now I might be the only one who has been selfish enough to actually act this way, but I bet all of us have experienced some kind of disappointment, some kind of unexpected outcome to something that we were highly anticipating.

I wonder in these moments do our unexpected, do our unanticipated happenings mean that there is a lack of love from the person in control?  

What about in regard to our faith and the love that God has for us.  When things don’t unfold the way we hoped or the way we expected does that mean that God doesn’t care?  Does it mean that God is not in control?  Does it mean that God doesn’t know what we need or what is best for us?  If the answer to these questions is no, then what does that say about our response to God?  The way that you I respond to the things he allows to happen.

How many times do we with unthankful hearts slide the gift of life that we have been given by God back under the tree and sit in our selfish little worlds sulking instead of growing in our knowledge and love of God allowing hi