The Suddenlies of God

I have always enjoyed listening to passionate people tell stories of how God suddenly invades their lives with something new and exciting - a new job, a new revelation about how to serve him, a sudden trip to Israel, or a sudden idea to earn money for the Kingdom.  Although I don't recall when I first heard the phrase, "the Suddenlies of God," I do recall my response:  a sudden rash of Holy Spirit goosebumps.  Later I would imagine waking up in the middle of the night and suddenly understanding how my various roles and duties and talents all intersect in this beautiful and simple synergistic vision of 'where I am going from here'.  This would be "my suddenly" that came finally, after years of simply trusting that somehow it would all make perfect sense.

My recent experience with suddenly is quite different than I or anyone else would have imagined.  My husband and I find that suddenly we have become parents of one more daughter.  Our nest of five has grown to six .. without labor, and without paperwork (so far).   And she's already 15 years old!  My head is still spinning over this suddenly which only the Lord himself could orchestrate amidst the craziness of a life already bursting at the seams.  And I wonder, had it not been for the Lord's very clear signs, could I have embraced this suddenly?

How could I not, though?  After years of praying "God, yes!  Let it be unto me according to your will," could I have said, "Uh, no; that wasn't exactly what I had in mind."

This is clearly not my imagined "suddenly," for rather than being a piece that brings all the others together to make perfect sense, it is a piece that fits only in the sense that suddenly our hearts have expanded once again to fully embrace another beautiful gift, and even to begin to imagine that she will always be a part of us - an "us" that only God himself could fashion.

Thank you, Lord, for your suddenlies ... and the way you smile down from heaven, perhaps with a bit of amusement, as we try once again to figure out what our minds cannot yet conceive - the riches of your glorious inheritance, forming anew, in us.