Expect the Unexpected; When God Doesn’t Fit in Your Box

For my thoughts are not your thoughts,

    neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord.

 For as the heavens are higher than the earth,

    so are my ways higher than your ways

    and my thoughts higher than your thoughts.

Isaiah 55:8-9 ESV

It is a tidy thing to put God in a box, limit his grace, his mercy and his love not just for us, but also for others, by our own understanding.

We pray tiny whisper prayers, with specific outcomes in mind, and find ourselves fumbling in the land of disappointment because our prayers have not been answered. Again.

Well, what if they have been answered but our thoughts are so focused on our preconceived notion, that we’ve missed the higher? The higher ways, the higher thoughts? What if instead of disappointment we peel open our tight fists and receive the gifts as they come?

God’s word states he is the God who walks in our midst. He is the God who hears our prayers. He is the God who provides, who guides, who reveals, redeems and restores. He is the God who sees our children and our grandchildren, and the grandchildren after that. How often do we miss him while we look for something or someone else?

Let’s take a peek at a few examples worthy enough to be recorded in the timeless book…

God seals a covenant with Abraham, the father of many nations. Abraham, the one who waits until his body is nearly dead for the promised son. Can you imagine the stars in the sky that now fall under this covenant, this promise from God to one man? One man whose prayers surely included, how long, how long, how long must I wait? Did Abraham imagine his wait would sow the fulfillment of a promise that spans millennia?

Jacob’s family faces extinction brought on by a severe famine in Canaan. The famine requires a move to a foreign land where Jacob is reunited with his long lost son. His long lost dead son. Jacob is praying for provision and direction. God provides and leads Jacob straight to grace, mercy, and abundance run over. Did Jacob imagine this unwelcome transition, late in his life, would end in an embrace?

Joseph carries the burden of doubt for years wondering if he’d be anything at all to his people, let alone their leader. He becomes not only their leader, but a vessel for delivering God’s grace, mercy and abundance. The vessel God uses for their survival. How many prayers, for how many years, did he whisper to be reunited with his beloved father? Did he fathom being sent ahead to prepare a place not just for his father, but for his nation?

Israel was expecting a warrior king, one who would establish an earthly kingdom and defeat their political enemies. What they received was a pauper infant born to obscurity. A pauper infant who would grow into a man with a keen knack for upsetting the status quo. Waiting, watching, anticipating for what they could only imagine, and then blinded by what they could not imagine. A king born for all people, to establish an eternal kingdom without end where there will be no enemies. Did they imagine?

Saul, a legalistic prick, giving his blessing to those who were actively persecuting Christ followers. Blinded by his pride and then blinded by the glory of the very Jesus he detested. Did he imagine the influence his words would have on the eternal church? Local letters, written to local people, inscribed by hand on homemade parchment teaching, encouraging, guiding, rebuking Christians globally not just 2000 years later, but for 2000 years, for eternity? What did he expect as he prayed over those words, those letters, those people?

What if instead of disappointment, we watch with anticipation for God to show up, for God to provide, for God to be and do more than we can imagine?

What if instead of tiny prayers, we break open the heavens with tremendous prayers banking on the power of the one who receives our prayers? The power of the one who clothed us in righteousness, tearing the curtain that stood between us and the throne?

What if when it doesn’t look like we’ve imagined, we acknowledge his love, wisdom, mercy, and ability to bring all things to a good finish? Knowing there is more than we can imagine, knowing there is more than we will see in this lifetime?

We piece together our post Christmas puzzles in the darkness of late December. Comparing edges, colors, shapes, finding each corresponding piece to lock the other in. Each piece exists only in context of the four or so pieces that surround it. Until…until, all the pieces are locked in place and we remember to unbend our backs, step back and look. Now we get the picture.

We are locked in time and space, existing within the context of our circumstances, culture, environment. Our understanding is limited by what we experience. But there is a God who transcends time and space, circumstances and culture. He sees the picture, all of the pieces and how they fit, building one upon the other, generation after generation. He has a plan, and it is a good one.

What exactly are you expecting? Because he is going to blow it out of the water. Don’t be blinded by what you cannot imagine. God doesn’t fit in your box. If he did, exactly what kind of god would he be?

When you can’t see, know that God does.

When the gifts God is dealing don’t fit, know that they will fit.

When the darkness is close, know a light is breaking.

When it’s more than you can take, know that it will be more than you can imagine.

And all things will be brought to a good finish, all things.

Have you been asking God what He is going to do? He will never tell you. God does not tell you what He is going to do; He reveals to you Who He is.

Oswald Chambers, “My Utmost for His Highest”