Unmet Expectations – A Story for Easter

I’ve lived in towns with interesting names but they always seemed to make sense.

Boise. It is a French word for “wooded” and the French trappers used it to describe the trees lining the river flowing through the valley where the city of Boise grew up. Boise is a beautiful, tree-filled city.

College Station. In the 1800’s, a little college, now Texas A&M University, sat along the railroad tracks and the train station was the stop for the college. The conductor would call out, “Next stop, College station.” A college was all that was there.

Pfugerville. It was named after the Pfluger family and since I was friends with a descendant of the town’s founder, it seemed like a cool place to live.

Corpus Christi. This Texas coastal town was discovered on the Catholic Feast – Day of Corpus Christi – by a Spanish explorer. The name stuck.

For almost a year, I’ve lived in a city called Flower Mound. For almost a year I have thought, “What a silly name. Who decided on that name?”

And then I saw it! THE Flower Mound. There is an historical marker at the base of the mound and the gate with “Flower Mound” lettered in iron across the gateposts.

But you know what? For the “almost year” I’ve lived in the town of Flower Mound and passed the mound on a regular basis as I fetch groceries and have NEVER seen a single flower on the large mound. Not one single flower. Just tall brown weeds.

I have felt a little bit like I have been tricked. It would be more accurate if the town was called Brown Mound.

It makes me think of other things in this world that aren’t as they appear. We have expectations unmet. We think things should work out one way but they don’t always. We have dreams unrealized.

A big brown mound.

I stopped to take a picture of the brown mound for this blog last week and had to walk through Texas bluebonnets that weren’t on the flower mound. They were next to it.

Texas bluebonnets are the Texas state flower and they cover our fields and the sides of our highways for a few weeks every spring. It is a magnificent site.

People take long drives to see the fields carpeted in the flowers – sometimes causing traffic jams in little towns. Guilty.

People pull their cars off the side of the road to take pictures. Guilty.

People stop their cars on the highway to take pictures of their kids sitting in the vibrant blue flowers. Guilty. In fact, one time I got my girls out of the car, made them change on the side of the road into the Easter dresses I just bought so I could plop them down in a patch of flowers along a highway.

I was hoping the “Flower Mound” would be covered with the much-anticipated blooms. The hill wasn’t but next to the hill was.

Unmet expectations.

I left town for a few days and didn’t pass the Brown Mound until Good Friday. I glanced over at the Brown Mound and had a surprise.

Three crosses on the top of the hill!

Talk about unmet expectations! The Jewish people were waiting for their Messiah. They expected him to arrive as a royal king or a valiant warrior. But He arrived in a stable, the son of a carpenter, and His entry into town was on a lowly donkey.

And the disciples and others followers who did believe Jesus was the Messiah expected Him to establish a physical kingdom on earth where I’m sure they saw themselves hanging out with their buddy as royalty. But he was crucified. Dead. I’m sure the disciples had unmet expectations when their leader, the Messiah, the promise of God was killed.

But three days later, all unmet expectations were rolled away like the stone that held Jesus in a grave.

Whatever you have experienced in life that might not have gone your way, you can be assured that in the end, God will meet your expectations of peace, love, joy and most importantly, eternal life – because Jesus gave up his life for each of us.

For God so loved the world that He sent His only begotten Son

that whoever believes in Him will not perish but have ever-lasting life. John 3:16

~~~~~

He isn’t here! He is risen from the dead!

Remember what he told you back in Galilee Luke 24: 6

Word has it the annual sunrise service held on the Brown Mound will be attended by about 3,000 people. Today, the night before Easter, I saw parents posing kids and their dog for a picture. And I woman in a prairie dress and huge, floppy hat was heading up the mound with her family.

So maybe the Brown Mound is more than meets the eye. And the promise that Easter brings – a risen Lord – will meet all of your unmet expectations. I pray you can experience peace, love, joy, gratefulness and God’s faithfulness.