My wife is a clown! Wait now—let me explain that. I mean that literally, not figuratively. I don’t mean she’s a clown in terms of being a cutup, an always-clowning-around type of person. I mean she is literally a clown, and she has been involved for about ten years in a clown ministry.

Her name is “Serendipity,” given to her by a longtime preacher friend. One thing that name means is “unexpected” and “unsuspected.” The fellow suggested the name because God’s grace comes at unexpected times from unexpected sources—even through a clown.

The dictionary defines serendipity as the ability of finding valuable things unexpectedly, or the gift of finding valuable or agreeable things not sought. The word was coined by Hugh Walpole in allusion to a fairy tale entitled “The Three Princes of Serendi…