Recently I had a pleasant surprise, but it’s all gone now. In fact, now I’m disappointed.

Pleasant surprises are nice – like when you didn’t study for a test and then it was postponed. 

…Or when you planned a golf game, then saw the forecast called for rain, but when you got up on the day of the game, it was bright and sunny. 

You are more joyful playing that game of golf than you would normally be, just because it was a pleasant surprise.

Well, back in the first week of November, I wrote about us getting a dump of snow and how cold it was (you can read about it here).

It was too early for the snow and cold. I even commented to people how this weather seemed more like it was the middle of winter – like January or February weather. It really had that kind of feel to it. 

Because the weather was so bitterly cold, and the amount of snow so great, I didn’t think we would see the grass again until the snow melted in the spring. 

I didn’t think there was any possible way for all that snow to melt, and especially the piles of snow created by the snowplow on the edges of the roads and parking lots.

One day my grass was green and then the next it was covered in snow. There was no process of watching the grass slowly turn brown before the snow came.

It was green, then gone.

Well, I was pleasantly surprised because, over the course of a couple of weeks, not only did the weather warm up again (we had some days in the double digits), but all the snow melted. 

… even the snow piled up on the edges of our church parking lot.

Gone. All gone. 

Even more than all that, the grass was still green. It hadn’t stayed cold long enough to turn the grass brown and yellow. 

It really was a pleasant surprise … but that all came to an end the other day.

Not only was the surprise over, but a disappointment set in. The first day of December we got a major snowfall.

It started in the afternoon and it just kept coming down. Traffic was snarled; there were warnings not to go out if you didn’t have to. Travelling on the major highways was treacherous with multiple car crashes and injuries reported. 

There was nothing good about it. 

Once again the grass went from green to being covered in a blanket of white. 

And disappointment has set in. 

It’s still too early to be fighting with shovels and scrapers. It’s too early to be carrying gloves in my coat pockets. 

Probably the biggest disappointment is that this time the snow is here to stay. 

Just like when you got that pleasant surprise of a test being postponed, it never happened twice. 

Well, the snow won’t melt again before the end of the year. 

All I can hope for is an early spring. … Who’s got a farmer’s almanac?

Here’s the thing: No matter how hard life might get, no matter how many disappointments you face, even if you have been defeated time and time again and don’t have much hope left, with nothing to look forward to tomorrow, remember that if you know Jesus Christ as your saviour, one day you will wake up and you will stand in the presence of God. It will be the most pleasant of surprises … and you will never be disappointed again.

That’s Life!

Paul

Question: What has been a pleasant surprise for you lately? Leave your comments and questions below.