Surprise!

I love the story in Ether chapter 3 about the brother of Jared seeing the finger of the Lord.  I love it because the brother of Jared is not given all the answers as to what he should do but he is asked to use his own ingenuity.  To me, this illustrates flexibility as we fulfill our own callings.  We pray, we listen to the Spirit and we add our own flare to the assignments given us.  And if I choose to do it in a slightly different way than the last person did it, that's OK.

I love it because the Lord is surprised in this story.  After the brother of Jared sees the finger of the Lord, Ether 3:9 says this:

"And the Lord said unto him: Because of thy faith thou hast seen that I shall take upon me flesh and blood; and never has man come before me with such exceeding faith as thou hast; for were it not so you could not have seen my finger.  Sawest thou more than this?"

 It seems to me, the Lord didn't mean for the brother of Jared to see his finger.  It seems to me that although the Lord knew that the brother of Jared had great faith, He was surprised at just how great his faith was.  It is a good example of how the Lord knows all things.  It is not because we are predestined to do certain things, as in we have no choice in the matter, but He knows pretty much what we will do because He knows us so well.  I equate it to how I know what each of my four children would do if placed in a room with a present and told to not peek while the psychology students leaves the room to "go get something."  I know which ones would peek and which ones would wait.  He knows us so much better than that, and yet, He was still surprised.  I wish I could surprise the Lord with my goodness one day.  Just one time.  Yep, that would be sweet.