Soon, in just a couple of weeks, the Church will move into a season of expectation, the Advent Season of waiting and longing for the Incarnation of the Son of God, coming among us as one of us. For now, however, we are in the season of the unexpected. We don't know how or when or where we will experience the presence of God; it often comes as a surprise, right out of the blue, when we least expect it. Sometimes we don't even recognize it as it happens; only in retrospect, like the Emmaus disciples (Luke 24:32) who realized after the risen Christ disappeared that it had been Jesus who walked and talked with them on the way.

Take some time to think about the times when the Beloved has surprised you at some unexpected time, at some unexpected place, in some unexpected way. I've told the story before of a retreatant who was struggling with an issue when, on the last morning of her retreat, as she went to the bathroom, the answer came. In her surprise, she yelped, "God, don't you know I'm in the bathroom?" God doesn't wait for us to be in some place or at some time that we consider appropriate to reach us. The Holy One looks for an open heart, one ready to receive what is needed at the time.

Sometimes God may surprise us through the phone call from a friend or something we read in a novel or through a conflict with someone when we are humbled to realize how unloving we have been, and on and on. There is no limit to the creative and unexpected ways that we may experience the presence of the Beloved. May we be awake and alert to recognize the unexpected and open to receive the grace and love God has prepared for us.