“For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God; . . . We know that the whole creation has been groaning in travail together until now; and not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the first fruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies.” (Romans 8:19, 22-23)

So it’s not just me and it’s not my imagination; I am waiting and I am not waiting alone in this waiting room I call my life.  This unfulfilled longing, others feel it too! All of creation feels it!  So, I may be waiting – but all of creation is waiting right along with me.  I can take some comfort in that.

In my previous post I referenced all different kinds of waiting rooms, but truly earth is eternity’s waiting room and we all share it and the wait together.  I think I need to redefine this waiting room as a preparation room because I need to spend my time in this room preparing not simply passively waiting.

Now don’t get me wrong, dear readers; I feel like I’ve spent my life waiting – I always feel like I’m waiting on something or someone.  I started young, waiting to grow up, to be able to drive, to vote, to go to college.  Fortunately preparation was involved in these waits, whether in preparing for the driver’s test or  preparing to be ready for college classes by preparing in high school, these times of waiting were not idle times.

Yes, waiting is work if done properly – work in the form of preparation and prayer. We wait for/prepare for so many things in life.  A job; we wait for and prepare for many different jobs throughout our lifetimes, we prepare extensively (and possibly fanatically) for a wedding, leaving no detail to chance, though nothing can prepare us for the marriage that will follow.  We eagerly wait to become parents, but no book exists on adoption or on childbirth/parenthood whose abstract words can come close to the reality that is having children.

Inevitably, I seem to find myself waiting on various and sundry people and things at any given moment in time.  I feel like I spend a disproportionate amount of time waiting on “hold” for the next available customer service representative because they value me and my business is so important to them.  Others include but are not limited to (this is in no particular order of importance or frequency) the cable guy, the light to turn green, the other shoe to drop, the snow to melt, the sun to shine, to hear back from ?, to strike it rich, for the cows to come home, for the “right” time, for the healing of a loved one, for the healing of a relationship, for the pot I’m so diligently watching to boil, for dreams to become reality, for pigs to fly, (yes, I wait on the possible and the impossible with equal diligence), for hearts to change, for the trip not taken, for the door to open . . .

but if I am waiting on God, then I am not waiting in vain, but I am waiting in peace and with a purpose; a purpose not my own – but God’s eternal purpose.  I can take comfort in this truth when the waiting seems long with no end in my human sight.

We are all waiting on something or someone here in this waiting room we call life. A popular phrase in this culture is “prepare to meet your maker.”   Ironically, this phrase is literally true;  we are each engaged in the process of preparing to meet our Maker, whether we realize or acknowledge this fact or not.  This is exactly what we are doing every minute of every day.  We are in the process of preparing to meet our Maker/Creator.

Some of us are granted more time to wait than others, but eventually for each of us, our wait will be at an end.   Until then, Lord help me to wait well as I wait upon You.

“Wait on the Lord: be of good courage, and He shall strengthen thine heart: wait, I say, on the Lord.”  (Psalm 27:14)

“Be dressed ready for service and keep your lamps burning,  like men waiting for their master to return from a wedding banquet, so that when he comes and knocks they can immediately open the door for him.”  (Luke 12:36)

“Sow with a view to righteousness, Reap in accordance with kindness; Break up your fallow ground, for it is time to seek the Lord until He comes to reign righteousness on you.”  (Hosea 10:12)

“There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under heaven.”  (Ecclesiastes 3:1)

sincerely,       Grace Day