“To expect the unexpected shows a thoroughly modern intellect" wrote Oscar Wilde. I make no claim to be a literary giant but that does seem to be a very misguided observation. The ‘ancients’ surely knew life can be full of surprises too.

Now whether my wife and I are ‘ancient’ or ‘modern’ we are only too well aware that you never know what might happen next. We realised it very forcibly on the day the nurse performing the scan on our unborn child said ‘Yes, there’s the second head’. Surprise would be an understatement because we simply didn’t have a clue we could be having twins!

The apostle Paul certainly understood this it which is why he wrote ‘God can do anything, you know—far more than you could ever imagine or guess or request in your wildest dreams!’

He wasn’t exaggerating either because of all he had experienced. He had never contemplated becoming a Jesus follower for example. Far from it! He had enthusiastically persecuted the church before becoming one of His most devoted disciples. He would never have thought he would be mistaken for a god either, but that happened too in a city called Lystra following the healing of a man with crippled feet.

Thoughts like this have been buzzing around my head because we have just celebrated the Christian festival known as Pentecost, that time in the year when we remember that God has sent His Spirit to live among us.

We can’t see the Spirit with our physical eyes of course, although the first disciples did see what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them. No, the Spirit is like the wind, invisible to the eye but detectable by the impact He has which is why I am also convinced He can do both the unexpected and the unimaginable.

I’ve known a habitual burglar who became a Probation Officer and met many a sceptic whose life has been completely changed because they became a believer. One friend, who is no longer with us sadly, asked a local pastor for help because he couldn’t put the Bible down! He didn’t want to become a Christian, but he simply couldn’t stop reading it! As you might guess he came to faith, and I had the joy of being at his baptism.

I’ve seen God answer prayer in the most amazing ways too, most notably when a group of us set out to help destitute refugees in the former Yugoslavia. I’ve also seen a news editor’s initial disinterest disappear with the result that the story of Mary Self’s miraculous healing ended up on the front page of a national tabloid and then as a book.

God is not dead. He is alive and He can work both in us and through us in the most unimaginable and unexpected ways. Paul knew it. I know it. I hope you do too.