Let God Surprise You
HAVE you ever noticed how often something good comes as a complete surprise? A friend at work says he has two extra tickets to the ball game and asks if you would like to use them. The company you work for announces a Christmas bonus for all employees. Yet have you ever noticed also how impatient we sometimes get when we're waiting for good to come our way? We mentally hold our breath waiting for the telephone to ring, for the word to come of a new job, a special date, more money. Perhaps we allow ourselves to get carried away projecting just how and when we think the desired good should come about. But such thinking is limited, to say the least. Why not look higher to God's infinite goodness to care for our needs? We may be surprised at the wonderful results.
In harmony with the Bible, the study and practice of Christian Science show us that God is infinite, divine Love, the creator and source of all good. He is forever giving all good to His children as the outflowing expression of His own perfect nature. In fact, God is good itself.
Why don't we always see His goodness expressed in our lives? One basic reason may be that we've accepted the commonly held conviction that we are separated from His infinite love, pretty much at the mercy of circumstances outside our control. Yet the Bible points clearly to the fact that our true being is forever one with God, inseparable from His love and perfect care. God is the divine Principle of man's being, and God is Spirit. Therefore man, as His offspring, is spiritual. He is not really a limited mortal at all, since God is infinite and eternal. Man is the beloved recipient of all that God has to give, since man is God's very expression.
God's provision for man is satisfaction, health, love, peace. Christ Jesus' healing works proved God's benevolent nature. Jesus' encouraging words are ``Fear not, little flock; for it is yourFather's good pleasure to give you the kingdom.''1
God is always with us. The requirement upon us is that we stop doubting His love -- stop demanding that good must come about in some specific way of our choosing. We must have faith in God's omnipotent and omnipresent ability to take care of us. And we'll know His love in tangible ways if we patiently trust His loving nature and power. In Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, Mary Baker Eddy2 writes: ``Wait patiently for divine Love to move upon the waters of mortal mind, and form the perfect concept. Patience must `have her perfect work.'''3
Sometimes we think we're being patient and trusting God to provide what we need, but inwardly we haven't quit planning how the whole thing will work out. Sleepless nights, checking the phone to see if it is still working, counting the days that have gone by, indicate doubt of God's goodness. Real patience, however, that patience which is God-inspired, doesn't have to linger by the phone or dash for the mail. Genuine patience is based on an understanding trust that God and man coexist as divine Love and Love's own perfect idea. There's no lack, no anxious waiting period in Love's ceaseless expression of its own goodness in man. And our prayers acknowledging Love's expression can bring such a full consciousness of God's all-power and right action that our thoughts will be at peace.
Such confidence enables us to do whatever we now have to do with happy and trusting hearts. In fact, the fear that the future might disappoint us just isn't with us anymore, because we have such a thankful heart for His omnipresent goodness. Then when the humanly tangible evidence of divine Love's care suddenly arrives, it's almost a surprising anticlimax. We see what we already knew -- that God is good.
1Luke 12:32. 2The Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science. 3Science and Health, p. 454. - NO BIBLE VERSE TODAY -
