I love listening to the Susie Larson podcast. She interviews authors, pastors, doctors, etc., and I always come away learning something new or being reminded of a profound truth to ponder. Her guests aren’t invited merely to expand the audience’s head-knowledge of Jesus, but also what it looks like to abide with Him. Susie opens every interview with the same question: “What is the Lord teaching you right now?” It’s a great question that is built on the assumption that her guests are seeking the Lord and that He is teaching them something new or taking them deeper into a lesson He has for them.

One of the things the Lord is teaching me right now is that everything with Him is bigger and greater than I can imagine (Ephesians 3:20). And I think I can imagine some pretty great things. But He keeps surprising me with His goodness in ways that I didn’t even know I needed. Showing me He is bigger than I can imagine has made me excited to live more expectantly of His bowling me over in awesome, unexpected ways.

There are a lot of examples in scripture of God doing more than we can ask or imagine – on almost every page there is something to stir awe in us. One of my favorite stories is Simeon’s story in Luke 2. I don’t know many people who share my love of Simeon’s story, mainly because it’s a pretty short story and the focus tends to land on Simeon’s blessing and his foretelling of Jesus’ impact on humanity – which is a deserving focus of the story. However, I gravitate to another aspect of the short story. The story starts in Luke 2:25 with the introduction of Simeon as a righteous and devout man who had the Spirit upon him. The Holy Spirit revealed to Simeon that he would not die before seeing the long-awaited Messiah. That is a very exciting promise for an elderly man who has voraciously studied scripture and could only hope to see the Messiah in his lifetime.

As the story continues, the Holy Spirit led Simeon to go into the temple on a particular day. It “just so happened” that Mary and Joseph brought their new baby, Jesus, to the temple on that very day. Mary and Joseph brought Jesus to the temple to keep with the law of Moses which stated newborns were to be presented in the temple on the 40^th day after their birth. If we are not careful, we will miss the part of the story that captures my heart every time I read it: Simeon doesn’t just see Jesus as the Holy Spirit told him he would do before dying. No, it says clearly that Simeon held Jesus in his arms that day in the temple.

“And when the parents brought in the child Jesus, to do for Him according to the custom of the Law, he took Him up in his arms and blessed God” (Luke 2:28).

I read the story of Simeon many times, but this detail jumped out like I was reading it for the first time. It caught my attention and my heart. I had been pondering the promise of Simeon “seeing” Jesus and just imagined Simeon spotting Jesus from afar, or hearing about Him and knowing he lived at the same time as the Messiah. And I honestly think that would have been good enough for Simeon. BUT… we serve a God that is generous beyond our wildest imagination. Simeon saw Jesus as up close and personal as possible. He held 40-day-old Baby Jesus in his arms. He not only saw Him, but Simeon felt His coos and cries against his chest.  

Of the little we know about Simeon, we know he had more than just head-knowledge of the scriptures. He was filled with the Holy Spirit and not among the “religious elite” we read about in the New Testament. He was awaiting the Messiah with every fiber of his elderly being. I’m overjoyed that Simeon not only got to behold Jesus but was able to hold Jesus.

What a gift. I believe the Lord was giddy giving Simeon even more than He asked for. I think back on my own life when I’ve prayed that the Lord would merely remedy a situation or prevent a negative outcome and instead, He gave me more than I could ask for or imagine.

After our oldest daughter moved to college, I was sad. Don’t get me wrong, I was happy for her and she was doing well, but the shift in our house having one leave the nest was hard on my heart. I found myself not wanting to be as involved in… anything, really. I usually have my hand in a lot of different things – committees, friends, volunteer assignments, etc. I found myself not wanting to raise my hand for anything. It was different for me, but I didn’t even want to make any efforts to keep up my normal pace.

During that time, a few moms at my kids’ high school decided to read and discuss a book about parenting teens from a Christian perspective. I was asked if I wanted to join their book club. I thought it sounded low effort enough to attend, so I agreed to be in a small book discussion group. Before our first meeting, one of the moms put the cover of the book on social media saying she was looking forward to reading and discussing the book with a few other moms. That simple post was all it took. She received many comments from other moms at our school wanting to join this book discussion group. Suddenly, it was not just a few moms casually discussing, but now it was a sizable group.

The friend who made the post reached out to me and said, “I’m not really great at leading, so could you lead this group?” Honestly, I didn’t really want to. It had nothing to do with the women involved and usually I would have been excited to lead a group like this. It had everything to do with me not feeling like I had anything to give. I was stuck in my sadness, and I was kind of okay with that.

However, decades ago, I had a conversation with the Lord that led me to promise to always give Him a “faithful yes” if He brought me opportunities to further His Kingdom. I was reminded of that conversation as I was trying to think of a way to politely decline leading this mom’s group. Instead, I gave my friend a faithful yes to lead the group.

I showed up the first week – still fresh in my sadness – not really knowing what to expect. It turned out, that group, meeting together to talk about Jesus every week, was not only what I needed, but I had no idea it’s what my heart wanted. My sadness waned as I basked in the glorious gift the Lord had given me. He knew I was sad and He knew sitting with other women talking about Jesus would bring joy to my heart. This group of women has been one of my greatest joys and biggest blessings. We are now in our third year of meeting together.

The Lord didn’t just proverbially lift my chin, which I would have been satisfied with. He gifted me a weekly meeting with awesome women to learn more about Him, share our lives, and build into His Kingdom. He’s teaching me I don’t have pray small or settle for “just enough” with Him. I might have been okay with my sadness, but He had more for me. More than I could have imagined.

Dear Lord, thank You for repeatedly surprising us with Your goodness. Thank You for keeping us in awe and that not only can You answer our prayers, but You take joy in “over-answering” them. You delight in giving us good things. You are only good and we thank You for taking joy in gifting us beyond our wildest dreams. We love You. Maranatha! Amen.