Surprises

Surprises when they're good are the best, aren't they? I very much love a good surprise.

Surprises that jump out of the dark when we're afraid of the dark to begin with, aren't the same. I had something like that happen today.

I stood in the bathroom straddling the two rugs over the icy cold tile floor this morning after blow-drying my hair. I had put on the first layer of beige powder and snapped open the yellow eye color case when a spider quickly moved across the opened case toward my fingers. I let the case drop to the counter, and breathing quickly I looked around for something to make the creepy crawler disappear. I shivered as I crunched him into a tissue and flushed him away.

Because of fear I flushed a poor spider. Because of fear I've also flushed a lot of other good things.

As I thumbed through the many sermon notes in my Bible today I came across notes taken from a series of sermons on Isaiah. Over and over it was written and underlined: say to those with fearful hearts, "Take courage, do not fear, for your God will come."

Such a perfect, reminding surprise today that I too often forget.