“And I was led by the Spirit, not knowing beforehand the things which I should do.” (1 Nephi 4:6). Why does the Lord sometimes insist that we must follow Him without any kind of hint or reassurance or roadmap of what's about to happen next? We could say it's because He wants to give us the opportunity to develop trust in Him. We could say that if we had a certain knowledge of what was to come, then there would be no room or need for faith. We could even say that the exact details might be so alarming or discouraging that if we had known about them ahead of time we would never have had the courage or the fortitude to begin in the first place. To a greater or lesser extent all of these are valid reasons why the Lord sometimes keeps us in the dark. However, I believe there may be another reason. I believe that God loves surprises. He lives for that moment when we are terrified beyond belief and hanging on by the very thinnest of threads and finally just when we are certain that the very Jaws of Hell are about to snap shut around us, then suddenly, we are snatched from doom by His grace and the majesty and incomprehensible beauty of His master plan is unfolded before our eyes and it is all that we can do not to quake and tremble at infinite mercy and goodness that He has shown us. Sometimes in our interactions with our Heavenly Father we go through life like the kid who thinks that everyone forgot about their birthday and nobody loves them when really they are all fighting their hardest not to crack under the pressure of not spoiling the surprise and then all of that bitterness and pain is swallowed up in the joy of the wonder we feel when the surprise party is finally revealed in all of its glory. If it ever feels like God has forsaken us, maybe, just maybe, He is hiding at the surprise party and waiting for us to come to Him and receive all that He has prepared for us.
