Pentecost is, above all else, a gracious surprise.
It’s Pentecost, the third most important holiday of the Christian year (after Easter and Christmas, of course.) In honor of the occasion, let’s begin with a quote by Calvin.
Not that Calvin. Not the Protestant Reformer of 16th-century Geneva. Let’s bask in the wisdom of Calvin and Hobbes, the comic strip.
Calvin’s standing outside, waiting for the school bus. It never takes much to make this precocious kid’s imagination run wild. Today is no exception. “It would sure be a big surprise,” he says to his sidekick, Hobbes the tiger, “if the school bus spontaneously exploded, and I didn’t have to go to school! Yeah, I’d sure be surprised if THAT happened!”
The final frame shows Calvin sitting on the school bus, looking dejected. He turns to Hobbes — who’s now reverted to his stuffed-tiger persona — and says, “Life is full of surprises, but never when you need one.”
He’s so right. Life is full of surprises — and they never seem to happen when we want them to. Boring, humdrum days drag on, uninterrupted. And on the days when we have other plans — exciting plans — unwelcome surprises can often derail them.
Holy surprises
The Bible’s full of surprises — holy surprises. God is at the center of them all, breaking into our lives like some cat burglar. Not stealing the silverware — just moving the pieces around, so nothing’s where we expect to find it. It can be infuriating when God does that!
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