Fun Little Surprises...

One of the blogs I'm into lately is Storyline, with Donald Miller and others.  This week, their Saturday Morning Cereal included this little gem. Take a look:



Normally I would say I'm not a fan of surprises, but I'm not quite sure that's accurate.  And either way, I love this video.  Having been a church kid my entire life, I can come up with all sorts of parallels, illustrations, and allegories tying it to God.  Let's take a moment and list a few, in rapid fire fashion...

...D. Westry is an artist/creator, God is an artist/creator...you couldn't tell at first what he was doing, but he knew all along...sometimes a change in perspective changes everything...sometimes we only get a clear view in retrospect...blah blah blah...

All decent and reasonable things. In fact, after my initial viewing, I watched it again and found that my view was unalterably shifted.  I can now only see it in light of the end product, because now I know what to expect. Perspective is indeed a profound thing. But it's not what makes me grin like a big dumb fool every time I watch.

No, what keeps me clicking back to the 2:03 mark is the delight for everyone involved.  The judges and audience going from "Eh, whatever," to "Wow, cool!" The artist giving a smile, knowing he created a wonderful surprise.  He didn't have to do it that way, but he chose to throw in that little extra zing, and you could tell that it gave him great joy (plus, he won the contest and a trip to Costa Rica, and that certainly doesn't hurt matters).

I love when that happens.  It can't be all the time, because then it would be ordinary and expected. The ending of the video is still good now, it's just not quite as brilliant as when I didn't know what was coming (although now there is something to be said to being in on the secret). 

I think God enjoys it when he gets to take some little snippet of life and make it an unexpected delight.  Just because he loves us.  And I sure enjoy it too--I mean, goodness knows there are plenty of hard things about life.  A little cheering up is always welcome...