Unexpected Blessings

You know how you can be going along in life with everything proceeding smoothly and then, suddenly, you have one of those days of "unexpecteds"? Well, Monday was a day of "unexpecteds" for me. Or, more precisely, Monday evening was. I went in to work at the normal time and was planning to attend a meeting at a local church over my supper break.

This was a meeting of a mission team that is going to Romania in May. One of my colleagues is the leader of the team and had previously invited me to attend another meeting to teach the group a bit about Romanian culture and language. When he asked me to come to the second meeting I was quite pleased to do so and promptly wrote it on my calendar.

Monday afternoon I made sure to print enough copies of a handout that I'd prepared and, when the time came, I hurried out of the building towards my car. It was then that I encountered the first "unexpected." A scattering of raindrops spangled the exterior of my car and, almost before my brain could process the fact that it had rained, my breath was taken away by the sight of an enormous, brilliant and absolutely gorgeous rainbow spanning the sky over the foothills in front of me! To the left, it stood out against a backdrop of dark clouds and to the right it shone out against a bright blue sky with a couple of fluffy-looking cumulus clouds. Wow!

Naturally, I paused to snap a couple of pix with my phone camera, then hopped in my car and zoomed off to my meeting. Upon arriving at the church I experienced the next "unexpected" when there was nobody there! I waited for a few minutes and then, deciding that I must have made a mistake in the date or time (I discovered later that they'd changed the location and forgot to tell me), I headed back to campus. I must admit that I was a bit frustrated, but I wasn't sure whether to direct that at myself or my colleague.

It was on the way back to campus that I received the third "unexpected." I remembered that our men's football (soccer) team was playing a scrimmage match and realized that I would pass right by the stadium. I decided to turn in and stop there for a few minutes. So... in one evening I experienced:

* the unexpected blessing of a beautiful rainbow
* the unexpected disappointment of a missed meeting
* the unexpected blessing of a few minutes to watch a football match

Ain't God great?!? That evening was a good reminder to me of how often the Lord blesses me in unexpected ways .... Now if I can just keep remembering that!