"Wordsworth's beautiful phrase 'surprised by joy,' now perhaps just as widely recognized as the title of C. S. Lewis's autobiography, identifies with simple eloquence how God works in the world. Don Juel, writing about the Gospel of Mark, calls Jesus 'the Master of Surprises' – a title that invites us to read the Gospel in terms of the many ways Jesus takes people, and continues to take us, by surprise. Not only the big surprises – say, raising people from the dead – but the moments of quick-witted riposte, the riddles, the sudden disappearances, the puzzling withdrawals and counterintuitive decisions, link him to the 'tricksters' in folklore who bring wisdom in through the back door, or sometimes a side window.
"I remember with particular fondness a friend who seemed always ready to be surprised. She seemed unusually attuned to the offbeat moments when an unexpected intrusion changed the shape of the day or the conversation, and she would pause over it to consider what might be beckoning. She had, as it were, one eye on the periphery to see who or what 'showed up.' An article on a newspaper's back page provided her with new material for a morning class – she had a lesson plan, but was prepared to change it. An interruption – even a rude one from a thoughtless student – proved to be an opportunity. Her willingness to be surprised modeled for me a species of hope: she received intrusions like quick passes from a teammate on a court, and she moved with them. Her agility was a delight.
"If we're watching for surprises, we begin to recognize them – little offerings from a universe where there are more things at work than are dreamt of in the day's agenda. Gradually what may have seemed a mere interruption or an impediment takes on a look of possibility and promise. A child tugging at my sleeve may actually direct me toward something I might have missed. An untimely phone call – even the dreaded solicitation call – may remind me of a neglected intention to give a bit extra this month. A thank-you note may come at just the right moment to dispel a day's accumulated discouragements with reassurance beyond what the writer could have intended.
"Watching for surprise almost guarantees that it will come, since surprise is the way of our Creator, who gave us a universe full of quantum leaps and subatomic particles that act like waves and inexplicable healings and epiphanic insights and prophetic dreams and curved space and breaching whales. The more we learn, as Einstein suggested, the more we know to expect the unexpected from a Spirit that 'blows where it will.' "
