Waiting

I have always loved a good conversation. I still remember when Todd and I were dating so many years ago (hold on, let me count....19 years ago...), we used to sit and talk for hours, often in the car. Those were the days before four kids and a golden retriever, who all push their way into getting Daddy's attention. Todd comes home from work, and suddenly everyone has a story to tell, a question to ask, and they all want first dibs and a front row seat. The noise and the energy escalate. Forget manners or taking turns. Perhaps the worst offender of this is Lily, our golden retriever. With all exuberance, she pushes her way to the front, barks and jumps (what happened to all those obedience training classes?!?), and insists that she gets all of Daddy's attention. Yesterday we sat and talked (or tried to talk) on our bed, and Lily was right up in Todd's face, smothering him in a thousand kisses and puppy cries. In the midst of one conversation, we are interrupted at least a dozen times. It makes me crave connection with a good conversation all the more. Waiting. Will it ever be my turn?

Back in those early days, many conversations were colored with analogies. When my heart was too full to express something with words, I liked to paint a picture of how I felt. It was a way of reaching out with the deepest part of my heart. I still love to learn through pictures and ideas, where the richest meaning is hidden -- but as you dig for it, it becomes a treasure to behold.

Listen to this portion from the Message, taken from Romans 8: "All around us we observe a pregnant creation. The difficult times of pain throughout the world are simply birth pangs. But it's not only around us; it's within us. The Spirit of God is arousing us within. We're also feeling the birth pangs. These sterile and barren bodies of ours are yearning for full deliverance.

That is why waiting does not diminish us, any more than waiting diminishes a pregnant mother. We are enlarged in the waiting. We, of course, don't see what is enlarging us. But the longer we wait, the larger we become, and the more joyful our expectancy. Meanwhile, the moment we get tired in the waiting, God's Spirit is right alongside helping us along.

If we don't know how or what to pray, it doesn't matter. He does our praying in and for us, making prayer out of our wordless sighs, our aching groans. He knows us far better than we know ourselves, knows our pregnant condition, and keeps us present before God. That's why we can be so sure that every detail in our lives of love for God is worked into something good."

I love this word picture of waiting -- filled with hope and expectancy, but honest and real that it is long and hard. Waiting is something Todd and I have had to do many times before. Waiting to get married. Waiting for God to open the right job. Waiting for a referral for our adoption. Waiting for provision. Waiting for faith to become sight in His unfolding promises over our lives. Waiting for delivery.

Just before a woman gives birth, there is active labor. For some, there are endless hours of labor that begin to wear down your strength. It gets progressively more intense and more difficult, until you reach active labor. It comes at a point when you aren't sure if you can make it any further. You are tired and worn thin. You have moments where you wonder if you really wanted this baby in the first place. Seriously though, it's when it feels like it is going to get the best of you and you want to give up. Here in lies the hope. At the point of active labor -- the very hardest part -- you are actually the closest to delivery. For all of the long wait, you will soon hold the promise in your hands.

Hold on. He's coming.