Anybody who loves must always be prepared to have his plans interrupted. We must be ready to be surprised by tasks which God sets for us today. God is always compelling us to improvise. For God's tasks always have about them something surprising and unexpected, and this imprisoned, wounded, distressed brother, in whom the Saviour meets us, is always turning up on our path just at the time when we are about to do something else, just when we are occupied with altogether different duties. God is always a God of surprises, not only in the way in which he helps us for God's help too always comes from unexpected directions—but also in the manner in which he confronts me with tasks to perform and sends people across my path.
-Helmust Thielicke's sermon on the Parable of the Prodigal Son, H/T Alan Jacobs
