JESUS IN THE UNEXPECTED

Have you ever been in the middle of a chaotic, stressful, or totally ordinary day… and suddenly, God made Himself known? 🖐

You see, sometimes, we look for God only in the big spiritual moments like a powerful church service, a deep Bible study, or a major breakthrough. We expect Him to show up in the grand gestures but overlook those quiet nudges and everyday reminders that He’s near.

Like most modern people,we’re often too busy, distracted, or focused on what’s next to see Him in what’s now. And we assume that if God is going to speak, it’ll be dramatic or life-changing and miss the fact that He often whispers through the simple and unexpected.

When we continually miss these moments, our faith can start to feel dry or overly “scheduled,” and we might feel like God is far away, when in fact, He’s been walking with us all along but we were just too busy to notice.

This played out perfectly for me one day as I was on my way to a dentist appointment with the kids – just a plain ordinary day, thinking about what’s for dinner when we’re done and all the back to school things we have left to do. 

As we arrived at the dentist office and walked from the car, right there in the parking lot, just lying there, was a little Jesus figure toy. Out of nowhere. No one around. Just sitting there as if waiting to be found.

It made us all pause and the kids were delighted. 

We picked it up, smiled, and couldn’t help but feel like it was a hug from heaven — a tiny, plastic reminder that Jesus is with us even when we’re not expecting Him. That He sees us in the stress, the appointments, the morning rush, the mundane.

What if we lived with more awareness that He is everywhere – not just at church or in quiet time, but in car rides, grocery stores, dentist waiting rooms, and morning chaos?

So this week, let’s slow down just enough to notice. Let’s ask God to help us see Him in the ordinary, to look for Him in small things like a kind word, a child’s laugh, an unexpected moment of calm – and not to brush it off as coincidence. It might just be your Jesus toy moment.

When we start to recognize Jesus in the unexpected, we begin to experience a deeper, more constant connection with Him. Faith becomes less about checking boxes and more about living aware and even on the craziest days, we can remember that He is here and He is near.