And So We Wait

Back in December, 2006 I had gone to the airport to welcome home our neighbors who were returning from China with their daughter. Now this was my second time to witness such a homecoming as this. The first time I had this experience, several local families had travel to China to bring their daughters home, all at the same time. This was quite unusual for so many families to travel all together from the same town, anyway, it was a rather large homecoming as you could have imagined. I didn't know these families but I wanted to be there to show my support. It was unbelievable to witness such an incredible moment.

Well, this cold December evening was very different and I don't think I was prepared for the emotional tole it would take on me. This time I had been waiting for our daughter for what I thought was a pretty long time and there was a connection of knowing this family. I began to sob as I witness them come down that hall. It was a bundle of various feelings. First of all, I was so happy for this couple because I could only imagine how completely whole they must be feeling. They were finally bringing home this little girl to their family in which they had waited and longed for. On the other hand, it reminded me just how my heart was breaking and just how much I longed to hold my precious one and bring her home to her forever family.

A few days later I received the most beautiful letter from a friend who had been at the airport that cold night. I think my pain must have been very evident to her that evening and in that letter she enclosed a copy of a poem entitled Wait. I hope it may encourage others as it has encouraged me many times.

Wait

Desperately, helplessly, longingly, I cried. Quietly, patiently, lovingly, He replied. I pleaded, and I wept for a clue to my fate, and the Master so gently said, “Child, you must wait.” “Wait? You say wait?” my indignant reply. “Lord, I need answers, I need to know why”. Is you hand shortened? Or have you not heard? By faith I have asked, and I’m claiming your Word.

My future, and all to which I can relate hangs in balance, and you tell me “wait”? I’m needing a “yes”, a go-ahead sign, or even a “no”, to which I can resign.

And Lord, you have promised that if we believe, we need but to ask, and we shall receive. And Lord I’ve been asking and this is my cry: I’m weary of asking: I need a reply!

Then quietly, softly, I learned of my fate as my Master replied once again, “You must wait.” So I slumped in my chair; defeated and taut and grumbled to God; so I’m waiting, for what?

He seemed then to kneel and His eyes met with mine and He tenderly said, “I could give you a sign. I could shake the heavens, darken the sun, raise the dead, cause the mountains to run.”

“All you see I could give, and pleased you would be. You would have what you want, but you wouldn’t know Me. You’d not know the depth of My love for each saint; you’d not know the power that I give to the faint.”

“You’d not learn to see through clouds of despair; you’d not learn to trust, just by knowing I’m there. You’d not know the joy of resting in Me, when darkness and silence was all you could see.

“You would never experience that fullness of love as the peace of My Spirit descends like a dove. You would know that I give, and I save, for a start, but you’d not know the depth of the beat of My heart.”

“The glow of My comfort late in the night; the faith that I give when you walk without sight; the depth that’s beyond getting just what you ask from an infinite God who makes what you have last.”

“And you never would know, should your pain quickly fee, what it means that ‘My grace is sufficient for thee’. “Yes, your dreams for that loved one o’ernight could come true, but the loss, if you lost what I’m doing in you.”

“So be silent, my child, and in time you will see that the greatest of gifts is to get to know Me. And though oft’ may My answers seem terribly late, My most precious answer of all…is still…wait.”

~Russel Kelfer