“I have news,” the text said.

A few minutes later, I sat on my friend’s porch, trying to imagine what her news could be.

I knew she was considering a major change in her life, but we had talked about it and it sounded to me like a plan that would take months of just the right timing, the right circumstances, the right conditions—for it all to happen as she hoped.

Her news astounded me. God had stepped in. He had brought about something far beyond anything she had dreamed. Bigger. More wonderful. (I’m tearing up, just typing this.)

And everything happened in just two weeks.

We were both so overwhelmed by it all that we sat sometimes in silence, not even knowing what to say, just trying to grasp how big this development was.

I murmured into one of those silences, “What other wonderful surprises do you have in store for us, Lord?”

*****

Since that evening, the thought has not left me: What if we lived our days with that prayer uppermost in our thoughts–“What wonderful thing do you have for me today, Lord?”

What if I spent more time in eager anticipation of the wonderful surprises God has for me, rather than worrying about what might go wrong, what terrible things might happen, what difficulties I might encounter tomorrow?

What if …?