No one likes to be blindsided. Something coming out of nowhere and knocking you off course is not fun. Maybe it’s an unexpected car repair or a leak in your roof. Maybe it’s a bill you just didn’t see coming or hospital stay you weren’t planning on having to pay. Sometimes these unexpected blindside moments come in confrontations with people that become angry and divisive. They can even be disobedient moments from our children. 

It’s easy in those moments to think It’s not supposed to be this way. That’s probably what was going through the heads of the disciples in Mark 9:31 when Jesus says, The Son of Man is going to be delivered into the hands of men, and they will kill him.

Wait just a minute! We were just getting in a groove here Jesus. Everything is just starting to work out. We’re starting to click and really understand what you’re about. This is not how it’s supposed to work! Now that all is a guess as to what was going through their minds but if you read the surrounding passages, it’s probably pretty accurate. 

One of the most unexpected parts of the plan for Christmas was that it would all end in this gruesome and horrific death. That’s not the image we’re generally given around Christmas time, but without Good Friday and Easter this season really doesn’t mean a whole lot. 

When Mary and Joseph welcomed their little baby in that tiny town of Bethlehem, they had no idea what he would end up doing. So often we take the Christmas Jesus and hold onto him as if that’s all there is. But the beauty of this story is that it doesn’t go how we expect because God uses unexpected plans to accomplish his perfect outcome. The season of Advent is all about this unexpected plan of God that ends with us getting a new and perfect life.