Here’s a thought – even God has to wait sometimes!
“Why are we waiting??” It’s a bit like the familiar backseat whine, “Are we there yet?” It gives voice to the eternal frustration of hanging around, waiting for something, anything to happen. Waiting for the right moment. Waiting for someone to do something. Waiting, waiting, waiting.
Much like the watched kettle which (yes, cliché, but sooo true!) never seems to boil, when we wait for the right moment, it seems like an eternity. It’s also true that there is almost never a “right moment” to tell someone bad news, or to get round to that project which we’ve been meaning to do for ages, but never quite got around to. It either is important and needs to be done, or it isn’t and doesn’t. Let’s not fool ourselves.
But there are other things which we do have to wait for, and where there is a right time, or the “Kairos” moment, as the Greek New Testament has it. For all things that are alive and grow, timing is in fact important. Growth cannot be instant, nor can it really be rushed if it is to be solid and stable. How incredibly frustrating in a world which has become so very used to instant gratification.
Back to my opening thought: even God has to wait.
He waited to create the world. He waited and watched whilst the Big Bang unfolded over billennia (I’m creating a new word here!) until such time as planets formed out of the dust of the universe. And then billennia more until creatures formed out of the dust of the Earth. Finally, humans came along. And then he waited several more millennia until the time was right – God alone knows why that moment was right! – to come down and walk among us in time and space as Jesus in 1st century Palestine. Why there? Why then? Why wait?
And after Jesus’ ministry was complete, after his death and resurrection, still God waited. And He continues to wait.
The divine patience really must be infinite. I wonder what God waits for. Perhaps He waits for us. Like a mother with her child, God waits and watches, filled with patience and love (and possibly frustration and annoyance too – that’s there in the bible if you look!), helping and supporting, watching us grow and learn.
When I stop and think that even God has to wait, somehow that helps me gain a little perspective and patience when things seem to be oh-so-slow, and I’m desperate to get it sorted, done, over with. What I’ve begun to learn is that if I rush to the end, firstly I’m bored when I get there, and find myself wanting to move on to the next thing. And secondly, I’ve probably failed to fix several things along the way that really did need fixing, and which I could easily have done if I’d only travelled more slowly.
If God can wait and wait and wait, and then walk the long road on foot, as Jesus himself did in Palestine two millennia ago, then surely I too can do the same through my life, instead of trying to build the life equivalent of HS2. We all can see how that’s turning out!!
Photo by Carlos Coronado on Unsplash