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Surprised

Ted Klassen

What is the best surprise you ever had at Christmas? For me, it goes all the way back to when I was in grade 5. I had been begging my dad for a “black diamond” baseball glove. I had showed him pictures in the catalogue and told him what a difference the glove would make to the way I played baseball. And yet I never really believed I would get a “Black Diamond” baseball glove for Christmas. But Christmas came and there was my new glove. That glove is long gone, and my dad is in heaven, but the joy that was on my dad’s face when I opened my present on that Christmas so many years ago has never been forgotten. He just couldn’t believe I was surprised.

The Christmas that started it all 2000 years ago was also filled with surprises for a lot of people. I believe God loves to surprise us! Consider some of the people in the story of Christmas in the Gospel of Luke and see how God surprised them.

First, there was Zechariah. Zechariah and his wife had been praying for a long time to have a child. One day when Zechariah was in the temple, an angel suddenly appeared and told him his prayers had been answered. Zechariah was so surprised, he couldn’t believe it. “My wife and I are too old,” he said. But they had a child, who grew up to be John the Baptist and prepared the way for Jesus.

Lesson number one: Keep praying and it will surprise you what God will do.

The second person who got surprised was a young girl named Mary. When an angel told her she would be the mother of Jesus, Mary asked, “How will this be since I am a virgin?” The angel told Mary that the Holy Spirit would come upon her, “For nothing is impossible with God.” Mary responded, “I am the Lord’s servant.”

Lesson number two: When you serve the Lord, you will be surprised how God uses you.

A third group of people surprised in Luke’s Christmas story were the shepherds. The shepherds were watching their flocks when an angel of the Lord told them a Saviour had been born who was “Christ the Lord!” So the shepherds hurried off to Bethlehem to see Jesus. When they came back, they were glorifying and praising God.

Lesson number three: You will be surprised by how God gets you to “see” Jesus the Lord.

Ted Klassen is senior pastor at Culloden MB Church in Vancouver.

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Last modified December 16, 2002.

© 2002 Mennonite Brethren Herald.
Published by the Canadian Conference of MB Churches.
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