Our culture does not like waiting very much.  Yet waiting is a discipline that often gleans great rewards.  Gardeners experience this as seeds planted take weeks or months to begin to sprout.  A youth saving their earnings to finally purchase a desired “big” item learns the value of waiting.  Expectant parents wait through the gestation period of multiple seasons before greeting their precious babe face to face.  In each case the end result is well worth the wait.

However, waiting can also be a time laden with worry and helplessness.   We may wonder if medical test results will reveal a serious illness.  Or perhaps we wait to see if a relationship will heal in time.  In situations such as these, we may not get the happy ending we long for, but there is still grace in the waiting… because, as we wait, we learn to surrender to that which is not in our control and, in doing so, we move closer to the Great Mystery who holds it all.  

The invitational space of waiting humbles us to realize, yet again, that there is a God and it is not any one of us.  There is freedom here.  Yet to wait is not to be idle.  We can do our part to prepare and pray.  And we can practice the one thing that is always available to us while we wait, that is, love.

May you be inspired!