Many years ago as a rookie teacher I looked across a classroom of 33 eighth grade students to which I had been assigned.  It is hard now for me to imagine those "children" in their upper 40s, some grandparents, no doubt.  But in those days I gauged those youngsters hastily.

It seemed some were ordained for successful, full, and prosperous lives.  Others, I worried, seemed to lack the fortitude or tools I thought they would need.  I foolishly judged by appearances.  I admit not having the confidence in God's Word which it deserves.  We have all underestimated God.

My measures were poor indeed.  One exceptionally popular, bright, and athletic student upon whom I would have wagered much, had life overwhelmed by drugs during college years while another I never would have guessed entered studies for the ministry.   

A moral upheaval seemed to spell ruin for one student, but the Lord alone knew the gracious renewal of His Gospel would bring and anchor this one back into the heart of the congregation.   

How often we have presumed someone's marriage doomed, another's health irreversible, or a friend's prospects beyond solution.  Likewise, how often we staked our opinions on the "look" or the "likelihood" of a thing instead of upon the promises of God's Word. 

The Lord can never be written off.  He does not consult our expectations before choosing to test or to bless.  His grace completely by-passes my pushing or my prevention.

If Christ had counted the cost, gone by appearances, or reckoned on the condition of our fallen humanity, He never would have consented to the humiliation of a barn or the mortification of a cross.  If he had waited for Lydia to open her own heart, or delayed until Saul made his own conversion, or killed time until you and I rectified our own attitudes, He would be waiting still.

But even in the most unlikely places and under the most peculiar circumstances or doubtful surroundings God's Word loses nothing of its truth or power.  The Spirit of the Most High is neither prejudiced or incapable.  He goes where He will and chooses to work as He will.  With simple words and the modest means of water, wine, and bread, he confounds the judgment of man and routs the strategies of sin and Satan.

Christ didn't come to prove himself but to serve us. In other words, He didn't swagger into this world asking for the biggest problems and saying, "Leave the mediocre difficulties to them."

He assumed the entire responsibility for the redemption of the world down to the most negligible corners and improbable human beings.  Never losing heart because of what the Father planned, Jesus came into the world committed to bringing hope to the hopeless and answers for every problem, stubborn or not.  God works where He wills and He is never prevented by the implausible.

That is why Christ is the ground of our cheerfulness and the reason we need never be surprised by what He accomplishes by His Word.

Human wisdom, computation, and plans will always be surprised and dumbfounded.  Faith in the Son of God - never!