Expectations

In Luke 4:16-30, Jesus preaches in the town he grew up in, and the people there don’t believe him. In fact, they get really angry with Jesus and try to throw him off a cliff! I was trying to understand why they would do that and Felicity reminded me of this story that helped me understand.

One day, as the legend goes, Miss Felicity Fox was off on an adventure! She had been given a very important job from Old Raven himself. Felicity was supposed to meet up with another adventurer so she could learn something important about adventuring. Felicity knew what to expect. There was some kind of wise sloth or skillful hedgehog or some other fuzzy woodland creature who would teach her to be kind or learn or something like that. Felicity was ready.

Felicity Fox arrived at the clearing in the forest where she would meet up with this Adventurer. She saw some cobwebs and thought they looked oddly beautiful. But she shook her head, and pushed them aside, walking into the clearing. There wasn't anyone there. "Huh," Felicity said. "I wonder…"

Just then, a giant spider plopped down in the middle of the clearing and said, "Hi there!"

"AHHHH!" Felicity yelled. "A giant spider!" She started to back away but stopped. "Wait. Did you just say 'hi there'? That's not what I expected to hear," Felicity said.

"Yes," said the spider. "Old Raven asked me to meet you here."

"You're my adventuring teacher?!" Felicity said. "But, you're a spider. You're not what I expected." That's when Felicity noticed that the spider was wearing a very nice top hat and… was that a bow tie? How did a spider wear a cummerbund and look so dashing? "Oh, you're really not what I expected," Felicity said. The spider smiled. "But what could you teach me about adventuring?" Felicity asked. "Spiders aren't adventurers. I know all about spiders."

Felicity walked away grumbling. "Can't learn adventuring from a spider," Felicity muttered. She wasn't watching where she was going and then SMACK ran head first into an oak tree. "OUCH!" she said. The tree shivered and shook and then Felicity heard, from way high in the tree, what sounded like hundreds of acorns tumbling toward her. She looked up. And saw hundreds of acorns tumbling toward her! "AHHH!" she yelled. "This is going to hurt!"

Just then, the spider in the top hat swung onto the tree! He started to spin a web-net, faster and faster and faster, and the acorns started tumbling onto the web, which had just the right amount of bounce and spring. None of the acorns hit Felicity's head. All of them bounced into a very neat pyramid of acorns.

"Woah," said Felicity. "That was amazing! You're not what I expected at all, but I'm so excited to learn!"

Well, that's how the legend goes, but I know one thing is true: sometimes what we expect to happen can get in the way.