Wait for it...

Every morning I start the day by pulling up the shades in my bedroom and looking out over my little garden.  I previously wrote about the sunflowers I planted by our picket fence;  one of my tiny seeds has now grown into an eight foot tall, magnificent stem with a gigantic flower just waiting to burst forth.  Some of the other stems are smaller, but just as amazing to me.  I look eagerly each day to see if it might be the day those glorious, golden petals open up.  This is what I saw today...

One of the biggest lessons I have learned in my short gardening experience is that it takes patience.  Things don't happen immediately, but every little leaf that grows, and every little flower that is produced is a miracle; they are a piece in accomplishing the bigger picture.  My little sprouts that started off with two tiny leaves, are now on the verge of becoming what they were always meant to be. 

I received a letter recently from a man fifty years my senior.  I have never met this man, but what he wrote me was a letter of encouragement to spur me on to become exactly what God desires for me to be.  The gentleman who wrote it is incredibly intelligent, wise, and very accomplished in both the field of education and religion; I am flattered that he has read anything that I have written, and I am honored to be able to learn more about God's character from him.  I wanted to share part of what he wrote to me with you;  it is a beautiful description of God's timing, and as I marvel at my sunflowers, and as I reflect on the fact that everything happens in His perfect time, these words stick with me each day, and they have blessed me tremendously.

Once I uncovered a definition of prayer that stayed with me: By prayer God disposes us in time to receive what He had planned to give us from all eternity.  To many people, that idea looks foolish and even cowardly, but to those who are willing to surrender and wait God emerges as silently and explosively as the sunrise.

 

 

 

I love the imagery of God emerging both silently and explosively at the same time;  something wells up inside of me and brings me to verge of tears as I reflect on what that has looked like in my own life.   

Looking at my sunflower today with it's one little golden petal sticking up, and seeing the rest just waiting for the perfect time to pop open, I saw my life as a child of God.  Slowly he grows us, teaches us,  and clothes us with wisdom.  Slowly, when we are faithful to Him, He reveals Himself; silently divulging one petal at a time until suddenly there we are...gazing upon our Creator in all of His glory, and in that moment we discover who we were meant to be all along. 

 

God's timing is perfect, and as imperfect beings we sometimes get impatient with His schedule, but when we intentionally choose Him, and when we sit back and wait for Him to emerge, He shows us His beauty and enables us, as believers, to reflect that beauty to the rest of the world. 

 

Every leaf is a miracle, and every petal is a part of the bigger picture;  silently and explosively God appears when we surrender and put our faith in Him...just wait for it...

 

 

 

I am still confident of this:  I will see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living. 

Wait for the Lord; be strong and take heart and wait for the Lord.

Psalm 27:13-14