Merry Christmas! This is a special season of expectation, reflection, and hope. I think it's this season of expectation that makes me reflect upon those expectations we have that are unmet.

We all have them - when things don't go the way we think they should. When we think we know someone and then they surprise us by doing something that seems out of character (or, what we think their character would be).

Jesus was not what people expected the Messiah to be. The people were expecting their savior to come boldly, in the clouds, on a white horse, ready to trample the oppressive political regime of the day to the ground. Instead, their savior came in tiny, needy form. A bundle of squalling humanity, born in the poorest conditions and unremarkable in every way except for the fact that he was the Son of God. How unexpected!

And then, at a critical moment when all seemed lost, when the end had surely come for this tiny Jewish movement, and yet another Messiah-figure had been killed at the hands of the Romans, this completely unexpected Messiah did something else unexpected - instead of succumbing to death, he conquered it. He was resurrected!

The people expected something big and grand, but they got something tiny and weak - an infant, born in a stable. And later, after his death, when the people expected weakness, what they got was strength and victory over death.

How often do we miss out on what God is doing because we are looking for something we don't expect?