Surprise

When I want to think of an example of committed love that is not easily shaken, I think of hockey parents, those parents who get up at the crack of dawn to ferry their children to the ice rink for practice or games, day after day, week after week. Theirs is a love that does not take personal convenience into account. They are simply there for their children and do what needs to be done–unconditional love.

God’s love for us is such a devoted, unconditional love, more than we are capable of on our own. Abiding in God’s grace, God’s presence, God’s love is the only way we can live as Jesus calls us to live. It’s the way God’s plan for creation is being worked out. And, sometimes, God surprises us.

That surprise was evident in the experience of the early church, when Peter realized that the Holy Spirit had been poured out on non-believers as well as believers in Jesus. God’s surprise was to invite everyone into God’s house.

How much we need to recover this sense of inclusivity, that we are all one in God’s eyes, that the God of surprises doesn’t adhere to our categories, because categories separate. God joins together. Separateness comes from us. God surprises us with divine love as the response to division and hate.