Tuesday 17 June 2008

"I love surprises!"

"I love surprises!"

-Gordon the Garden Gnome, this morning on ABC Kids.

Why? On what grounds do you love surprises? The bubonic plague was a surprise. Still is, for those who catch it. The explosion of the Challenger Space Shuttle was a surprise. Our dog weed in the lounge room yesterday. That was a surprise.

This idea of loving surprises seems to be a remarkably stupid attitude with which to approach life. Why are are we teaching it to little kids?

They never pray on Gordon the Garden Gnome, either.

5 comments:

Lucy C said...

I HATE surprises.

John Smuts said...

Thanks for putting us straight on surprises Gordon.

The fact that God should pour his love onto an undeserving sinner like me is exactly what I expected. He is soooo predictable.

Gordon Cheng said...

John, I think you mis-spelled 'so' there. Three too many 'o's.

And yes, I agree it's predictable once you've read Genesis 1:26 with the eyes of faith. Well said!

Anonymous said...

Gordo the garden gnome? I'm still getting over that weird Gordo the Christmas elf-dancing thing... even pouring domestos into my eyeballs hasn't erased that image!

Timothy Wonil Lee said...

This post was quite random, Gordon, but I think I understand what you are trying to say. Correct me if I am wrong, but I think when we tell ourselves (let alone the young ones), that we need to be excited and stimulated by the sudden and the unexpected, we will only grow to be rather shallower and shallower. Am I reading into your simple comment too much?

However, I wouldn't be so sure and quick to say that God is so predictable (I am referring to John's comment above now, more specifically the line: "The fact that God should pour his love onto an undeserving sinner like me is exactly what I expected.") I think when a person understands the Gospel for the first time, it always captures him by surprise, that a holy God, as He truly is, should look upon a sinner like me, and have mercy and offer forgiveness in Christ.
We may say that after becoming a Christian, and after living and learning as a Christian for a while, that "it is such a God-thing to love an underserving sinner and forgive him" since we now understand so much more about God's character. But I think it pays to check ourselves whether we, as "seasoned Christians" are still amazed, if not surprised, by the fact that the Lord of lords should have died for sinners such as us.

Now, I might have stretched the meaning of the word, surprise and amazement and blurred the boundary a little here, and if you are annoyed by that, I apologise. But I really think, that an element of surprise is still there as you walk and stumble as a Christian and experience His goodness and grace over and over again.