Unlikely
By Jack Wyman
Where could it be?
I looked everywhere: the house, the car, my office. It was nowhere to be found. My cellphone charger was missing. I checked the suitcase.
Nope.
I told our daughter, three hours away, to keep an eye out for it. We had spent the weekend with our family and hoped it might turn up at their house.
Two days later, I was getting ready for a business meeting. I slipped my right foot into my loafer. I felt something in the toe. I reached in—and, to my unanticipated joy and relief, pulled out my charger. Then I remembered that, for some reason, I had curled up the cord and stuffed the charger into my shoe.
An unlikely place, I thought. In the toe of my shoe. It was where I least expected it, even though I had put it there. In my zeal to search in the usual places, the likely and obvious places, I had overlooked the improbable place. It didn’t occur to me. I’d forgotten.
We don’t often look in unlikely places for surprising results. We focus on the reasonable places and the likely results. When an election doesn’t turn out the way most expected, we call it an upset.
What do we say about the unexpected? “I sure didn’t see that coming.” We reason, plan, prepare, and anticipate. Then, on occasion, we still get surprised. Logic gets turned on its smug, self-assured head.
Scottish poet Robert Burns in 1785 wrote that, “the best laid plans of mice and men often go awry.” We still struggle with that truth.
The dictionary says the word "unlikely" means, “not likely to happen, be done, or be true.” Then, sometimes, surprise! It happens. It is done. It turns out to be true.
God revels in the unlikely. It is his modus operandi. He loves to surprise us and usually does. By keeping us off our carefully choreographed guard, he so often reminds us that he’s God—and we’re not.
“Many are the plans in a person’s heart, but it is the Lord’s purpose that prevails” (Proverbs 19:21). God shakes his head and laughs at the vain raging and manipulations of the power-seekers of nations.
“God moves in a mysterious way, his wonders to perform,” William Cowper wrote. “He plants his footsteps in the sea, and rides upon the storm.”
The apostle Paul told the Corinthians that God seldom chooses the wealthy, wise, powerful, and well-connected to be the instruments of his divine will. Instead, his tool-chest is filled with the unlikeliest agents of change.
The world has scoffed at the people God has chosen to use. God has shown he is God. He knows what’s he’s doing and he knows who he’s using. God has often employed what the world has dismissed, to dismiss what the world has valued (I Corinthians 1: 24-29).
Why? So that no mere mortal can ever boast in God’s presence. Who is it we see God using when we search the scriptures?
We see Noah building a boat in a land that had never known a drop of rain. We see Abraham venturing forth into the virtual unknown, led only by the providence of God. We see Moses, tongue-tied and reluctant, arguing with God through a burning bush, and Gideon hiding for his life in an underground winepress.
We see David as a lad roaming the fields with his sheep, and Elijah dejected and suicidal in a cave. We see impetuous Peter, the emotional and blunt fisherman, confessing to Jesus he’s a sinful man. We see the Pharisee Paul struck down by our Savior along a dusty road, on his way to kill Christians.
Unlikely choices.
Noah was an unlikely shipbuilder. Israel was an unlikely country. Abraham was an unlikely patriarch. Moses was an unlikely liberator. Gideon was an unlikely general. Elijah was an unlikely prophet. David was an unlikely king. Paul was an unlikely evangelist. Peter was an unlikely churchman.
Read their stories. You’ll agree.
Jesus—though God—was still an unlikely Messiah who came into the world he made in an unlikely way, lived an unlikely life, pursued an unlikely mission; attracted some unlikely followers, conducted an unlikely ministry; said some unlikely things, and experienced an unlikely trial, death, burial, and resurrection.
Only the Author and Finisher of our faith could have purposed such an astoundingly unlikely salvation for our souls. And then have the power and wisdom to perform it. To complete it. To assure and guarantee it.
Only God could have had the ability to conquer every opposition, every foe, every enemy, every resistance, every scheme, every demonic force, to bring his salvation to triumphant victory and imperishable glory.
We must never lose our childlike ability and willingness to be joyfully surprised by what God does—every day. For us, and for those we love and pray for. The hands that shaped the universe hold your child, your parent, your friend. Your neighbor. The nation and the world.
Nor, in the deepest and most profound tragedies, heartbreaks, and crises of our lives, should we ever doubt God’s endless and unfathomable love for you and me.
Sometimes we might. But we mustn’t. As English preacher Charles Spurgeon said, “God’s too kind to ever be cruel—and too wise to ever make a mistake.”
He can be trusted because of what he’s done, what he knows, and what he’s planned. More than this, he may be fully trusted because of who he is. God is good. Always. Not safe. Not predictable, not likely, as C.S. Lewis reminds us, but good.
Think of that the next time you discover your phone charger in the toe of your shoe.
God. Sometimes he’s so unlikely.
To order Jack Wyman’s book, “Everything Else: Stories of Life, Faith and Our World”, go to amazon.com, Christian Book Distributors or barnesandnoble.com. It is also available on Kindle and eBooks.
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