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When God Interrupts


            How would you react if the Queen of England crashed your wedding?

           That sounds sort of stupid, unless you are Manchester’s John or Frances Canning and then it is a valid question.
  
          Like many couples, John and Frances planned their wedding to be a small, quiet, civil ceremony.  As it turns out, the Queen and Prince Philip were having lunch in the same building that day and they decided to drop in on the unsuspecting bride and groom. 

            “It was bizarre!  She knew our names!” Frances said.  “I am definitely going to have to go buy more photo albums than I expected”. 

            When the Queen drops in, everything changes.

            Did you know that this sort of thing is not completely unprecedented?  In fact, God does it all the time.  Many times, we see God dropping in and “interrupting” the normal, calculated lives that people had planned out.  People like Abraham, Jacob, Moses, Mary and Paul would be good examples of this.  You can also add “Manoah” to that list.

            Manoah thought he knew how his life was going to go.  At one time, he and his wife had planned on having a big family, but that dream was long gone.  In fact, their hopes had been so crushed that when we are introduced to his wife we are not given her name, but rather a description:  “she was barren and childless”.  However, God interrupts their life by sending an angel to announce to them that not only were they to have a child, but that he would be special and do great things for God.  Eventually, this prophecy came true and, when the boy was born, they named him “Samson” and the rest, as they say, is history (See Judges 13 for the full story).

            The point:  When God drops into our lives, everything changes. 

            The good news:  He is still trying to drop in and interrupt our plans.  God is still trying to get our attention so that he can do his work in our lives.  How?  Well, maybe there is a passage of scripture that you keep thinking about.  Maybe your circumstances have changed and it has caused you to think about things you have never thought of before.  Maybe something inside of you keeps nagging and saying, “You should … (fill in the blank)”.   The key is to pay attention.  We often see interruptions as problems, but God can use them as opportunities.

            Easter is a good time to remember that God likes to interrupt our world for the good.

            “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:16).

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