Expect the unexpected

God has a habit of showing up in places we least expect.

One of the most important spiritual truths I’ve come to believe is this: Expect the unexpected.

We see this so clearly in John 12. Jesus is on his way to Jerusalem, where he’ll soon face betrayal, death, and resurrection. But first, he stops at the home of his friends—Mary, Martha, and Lazarus—for dinner. And in the middle of that meal, something astonishing happens.

Mary takes a bottle of expensive perfume—worth about a year’s wages—and pours it on Jesus’ feet. Then she wipes his feet with her hair. It’s an act so bold, so vulnerable, and so beautifully out of place that it stuns everyone in the room.

But not Jesus. He receives it as a gift, as a declaration of love, as a preparation for what’s coming next.

What strikes me is that it’s Mary—the one no one expects—who gets it. She sees Jesus for who he really is and responds with extravagant grace.

That’s what God does.
Again and again, the Spirit surprises us.

Lazarus is raised—just one chapter earlier in John’s Gospel, Jesus stands at his tomb and calls him out, grave clothes and all. And now, somehow, here he is at the dinner table, alive and passing the bread.

A woman becomes the anointer of the Anointed One.
A crucified Messiah ends up saving the world.

And sometimes, the Spirit shows up in the middle of an ordinary day—

through a text you weren’t expecting,
a kind word from a stranger,
a quiet moment of clarity when everything felt like chaos.

As we continue this journey of Lent, I wonder what would happen if we kept our hearts open to surprise.

Because the story of Jesus is full of moments like this—
where grace breaks in,
where love makes a scene,
where new life shows up just beyond the edge of what we thought was possible.

Even now, in a world marked by uncertainty, division, and deep longing for justice, the Spirit is still moving—
stirring hearts,
awakening hope,
and getting us into the kind of “good trouble” that heals and liberates.

God disrupts our plans
with strange, beautiful mercy.
Expect the surprise.