Unexpected
So, here is a picture of an out of season Passion flower, perfect and completely unexpected. It was suddenly glimpsed in a dark corner of the garden in late October.
Late October and a glance at the wall
reveals a solitary Passion Flower
in full and perfect bloom.
Exclamations of
delight and wonder
as the fragile bloom is captured
on camera.
Thoughts escalate, as,
pondering the Advent season
that sense of the unexpected
journeys with us.
Of course,
each day we anticipate doing
what we have planned,
and yet,
each day has a pattern of its own,
often disrupted!
We may consider life to be ordinary,
unexciting, dreary, weary,
yet how often does the unexpected
puncture the flow of the day?
The text, the phone call, the letter;
a birth, a death, an illness;
a visitor, a gift, a sudden invitation.
All these bring colour, change the pattern,
texture the ordinary with the
unexpected:
joy and sorrow,
wonder and mystery.
In the midst of the ordinary
Advent preparations,
Loving God help us to see
the unexpected.
Just as Mary greeted Gabriel in fear,
but followed it with whole hearted trust,
with the wisdom to say:
‘Yes’,
so may our ‘Yes’ to you enfolding us
in your amazing love,
give us the grace to share it
unconditionally.
God of surprises, God of the unexpected
surprise us all this Advent season!
