Waiting is hard

For the last fourteen days we have been waiting for Isabel to awaken.

Noah and his family waited months for a good rain.
Abraham and Sarah waited 25 years for a child.
Moses waited 40 years for the right time and right way to liberate his fellow Hebrews.
(Moses may not have known he was waiting. But 40 years in Midian tending sheep had to be hard on a man who grew up in Pharoah's court with the movers and shakers of the world.)
Simeon and Anna waited their whole lives to see the birth of the Messiah.
Mary waited 30 years to see the prophecies concerning her son Jesus begin to play out.

And so on.........

Isabel sometimes looks after Lillian and Grayson Maynor when Peter and Melanie need child care. Some of you may have read Melanie Maynor's "comments" a week ago. She quoted someone from her past who made the observation: "Waiting is worship." It would be hard to capture the biblical teaching more concisely or clearly. We stand in a long line of men and women and children who waited for the Lord's salvation. It was part of their submission to God as God, part of their trust in his fatherly goodness. But depending on the circumstances, even one day of waiting can seem like an eternity.

And why is waiting so hard? Probably for lots of reasons. We do like control, and as a rule, waiting kills that. But I think another reason is the deep ache in our souls for all things wrong to be set right. It's part of being created in the image of God. There is a constant ache for redemption and life and the fullness of God's glory to be revealed. It's an ache that we live with and when someone we know is suffering it can surface with remarkable power.
We know Isabel was created for life and vitality and joy and so we are heartsick when we see her as she is in ICU. We pray that God will raise her up. But since he hasn't yet, we are all waiting.
Waiting requires radical dependence. And radical dependence is what worship is all about!

"It is good to wait quietly for the salvation of the Lord." (Lamentations 3:26)

"Since ancient times no one has heard,
nor ear perceived,
no eye has seen any God besides you,
who acts on behalf of those who wait for him." (Isaiah 64:4)

With Rick and Mary we all are waiting for God to act in faithfulness to his word. We are waiting for Isabel to wake up and we are all waiting for our Lord to descend with magnificent authority to make all things new. They are both hard to wait for. But this is our worship.

Kurt Lutjens, Isabel's pastor