In both readings today, we encounter people whose rigid expectations nearly impede a miracle. The King of Israel receives a surprising and seemingly misdirected note; Naaman receives an instruction; the people of Nazareth, an admonishment. These messages and their sources fail to conform to expectations of what should be asked of us, how we should be treated, and what we deserve, and so elicit anger and offense.
How often my own expectations have gotten in my way—from what I expected motherhood to be like to how I expected a single conversation to play out. And how easily, when life unfolded differently from my script, it felt like an injustice, like an affront. Perhaps we all, like Naaman, have experienced asking for something and then refusing to accept the instructions for getting what we want. Hopefully, like him too, we have a calm and wise soul beside us to say, reconsider.
Expectation is not the same as hope. Expectation leaves no room for surprise or delight. It only holds the world up against our limited imagination and our ego, demanding compliance. Rigid expectations cause us to rage as our prayer is being answered or while God stands right in front of us.
It is always the surprises—my daughters’ growing independence, a new season of marriage, a mid-life career change—that show me my scripts need to be set down so that I can hope and receive.

Melody S. Gee

Melody S. Gee is a poet and essayist, and the author of We Carry Smoke and Paper: Essays on the Grief and Hope of Conversion. She lives in St. Louis, Missouri.