“Do you like surprises?” I asked my preteen
student with special needs. “Only if I
know what it is,” he honestly replied.
‘I get it,’ I thought. I also
thought, ‘Well, that’s not technically a surprise then, is it?’ I’ve also been teaching him facial expressions. If a person’s eyes and mouth are wide open
and his eyebrows are up, then he is surprised.
I will also ask if the person in the picture we are studying thinks it
is a good surprise or a bad surprise.
A
few days later I was playing hide-and-seek with my three-year-old son. He wanted me to tell him where to hide as
well as tell him where I was hiding. I
tried explaining to him, as I was laughing, that the reason we close our eyes
is so that we won’t know where the other person will be hiding. When he asked me again where I was going to
hide, for three-year-olds are relentless, I said, “It’s a surprise.” When he told me again on another turn where
he was going to hide, I told him he wasn’t supposed to tell me. He said, “But I’m gonna laugh.” This was true--if he didn’t tell me, his
laughter was sure to give away his location.
We
are a few months into this COVID-19 thing, and I’m past the terrified stage,
the surreal stage, and the bored stage.
We, at my house, are in the exhausted and jealous stage because we see
friends and family all around us breaking their social distancing. We are not ready to do this for many reasons,
two of which include my son’s heart defect and my autoimmune disorder. Neither of us have been labeled in the high-risk
category by our doctors, but there is still the unknown, the surprise. COVID-19 is still out there. The surprise is that no one really knows how
his or her body will respond to it or if he or she will contract it. I don’t know if a person I come in contact
with is carrying the germs, passing them on to me for a surprise attack.
When
I was in the scared out of my mind stage, my husband tried to make me feel
better by saying we will probably all get the virus at some point. At first my husband’s attempt did not help,
and I had the irrational thought of running out to the grocery store to get the
virus immediately so that I could get it over with. What a strange thought! Well, it is about surprise versus
control. That would put the proverbial
COVID-19 ball in my court. Then as I
calmed down, I felt better that I wasn’t in control of getting the virus, and
that I must live my life without fear.
Although, we continue to be more cautious than others in our immediate
family.
So
what does the Bible say about surprises?
Depending on your Bible version, you might actually spot the word
surprise in print. There are happy
surprises in the Bible like when Samson’s barren-free mother was surprised with
the news she was expecting (Judges 13:5).
Or when Boaz awoke in surprise to find Ruth lying at his feet (Ruth
3:8). Surprise is used when referencing
sneak attacks on armies or cities such as Joshua and his men when God told them
to take the city of Ai (Joshua 8:21).
Moses was surprised when God gave him a leprous hand then quickly
restored it when preparing him to go before Pharaoh (Exodus 4:6,7).
Men,
women, tribes, and cities were all surprised, but God is not. God knows all that has happened and all that
will come to pass. My feeble attempt to
predict and know is just so I can control and calm my fear. I will continue to battle the sneak attacks
of anger with gratitude. Thank you Lord
for my job and for games of hide-and-seek with my son. I will continue to protect my family and pray
for an end to this virus. But I must
also remember to lean back and rest in the Sovereign Arms. I’ve got to hand over daily surprises to the
One who is not surprised. And I must
never ever forget that God has a certain plan and purpose that prevails and
triumphs over illness, disappointment, or changes in my earthly plans.
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