Delicious Ambiguity

Years ago I bought a book by Gilda Radner called, IT’S ALWAYS SOMETHING. If you remember, Gilda Radner was an original cast member of Saturday Night Live. She begins her book this way:

I started out to write a different book about my life as a homemaker. I
wanted to tell you about my experiences with the toaster oven, the
plumbers, mailmen, and delivery people.

But life dealt me a more complicated story. On October 21, 1986, I was
diagnosed with cancer–a more lethal foe than the interior decorator.

Cancer is perhaps the most unfunny thing in the world. So, this is a
seriously funny book. One that confirms my father’s favorite expression,
“It’s always something.”

I found myself wanting to laugh and cry as I read Gilda’s account of her heroic struggle
with the disease that eventually took her life. In the conclusion of her book she writes:

Some poems don’t rhyme, and some of life’s stories are really hard
to understand. They never turn out the way we set out to write them.
There is just too much delicious ambiguity.

I love the way she describes life’s uncertainties: “delicious ambiguities.” Think about
the meaning of each of these words:

delicious: very pleasing, delightful, sweet, delectable, enjoyable

ambiguity: not clearly defined, obscure, uncertain, incomprehensible

As I write these words I am listening to Christmas music (yes, I listen to Christmas music all year long because Christmas music lifts my mood). I’m thinking of Joseph and Mary and how they experienced delicious ambiguity. Was it confusing when the angel gave them two different names for their son?

The first name, JESUS, means “savior.” The second name , IMMANUEL, means “God with us.” The pairing of these names signals a reversal in our typical understanding of salvation. We don’t usually think of salvation as having God with us. We would rather think of salvation as our being with God. As being “saved from” how it is in this life.

But, dear ones, being a follower of Jesus doesn’t save us from a blessed thing here on earth. God never promised to save us from grief, or illness, or heartache, or injustice.
What God does promise is to be with us regardless of what we have to face in life.

Presence, not protection, is the promise of Scripture. The little story God is
writing for each of us will definitely be filled with delicious ambiguity. Count on it. That’s just a given in this life. But also count on this: our good God is writing a good story with a good ending. And, the ending I’m talking about is not the ending of our little story but the ending of God’s Bigger Story. With Jesus, we are part of a Story much larger than our own.

Richard

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