Expect the unexpected
At that time Jesus said, ‘Father, Lord of heaven and earth! I thank you because you have shown to the unlearned what you have hidden from the wise and learned. Yes, Father, this was how you wanted it to happen.
‘My Father has given me all things. No one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and those to whom the Son chooses to reveal him. ‘ (verses 25- 27)
If you cast your mind back, you may recall some of the old folktales which tell of a person who is thought by others to be too young, too foolish or too weak to be useful but who eventually astonishes everyone by fulfilling the requirements of a difficult quest. Often it comes about because the ‘foolish’ person is humble enough to listen to a fairy, dwarf or bird and thereby discover the answer that eludes the ‘wise’.
Similarly Jesus’ parables take unexpected turns in their story-lines. A despised Samaritan goes out of his way to help a man in a ditch, a father runs to greet a worthless son, a beggar among the dogs dies and is carried to Abraham by angels. Jesus tells us that his heavenly Father chooses those the world fails to appreciate: the ordinary, the uneducated, the disenfranchised.
If you realise that you have been too preoccupied to be open to Jesus’ revelation of his Father, ask for his forgiveness. And, in humility, listen to what God wants you to know and understand.
Dear Jesus, help me to let go of whatever is blocking you from my life, and make my heart receptive to you and your life-giving word. Amen
by Margaret Hunt in ‘New Strength for each Day’ (LCA, Openbook, 1998)
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