We spend much of our lives waiting...for a Dr. report, for a much wanted child..for the first day of school, for Christmas!
We are an impatient people, many of us. But there is meaning in the waiting. I remember waiting all day long until the cold evening hours to see Dwight Eisenhower and Mimi on their whistle stop tour through Woonsocket...now they know the winner before the election is held. Now we have microwaves so we can eat sooner...no waiting. We have Email so there is no waiting for the Postman to come...but it's important to wait. As we wait, we experience something of God's grace as it reveals itself in the waiting...and the anticipation grows like the ivy on the walls of time...
Phyllis and I waited those long months of 1970 until Advent reminded us how anxious and difficult it can be to wait for God...
On that cold blustery Saturday in Bainbridge, NY, the Dr. visit was over, she insisted we walk into the woods to cut the Sanborn Christmas tree..all the time as we went through the motions, waiting. I broke three Christmas tree stands in the process, but the tree went up, lights were strung...and on this journey we walked as did Mary and Joseph, she acknowledged that "I am going to bed because we're going to have a baby." Snowing harder outside my office window, I went to start the sermon for the 13th as we had no way of knowing what God had planned for us...
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2 comments:
As a child, it was so hard to wait for my birthday. The days seemed to last for weeks leading up to the big day. Thank you for sharing the stories with us, Dad. I can picture you out in the woods, cutting down the tree with Mom. Little did you know you would be up in the middle of the night for my arrival!
What a beautiful post -- thank you for writing about this, that waiting can indeed be difficult, but we shouldn't always rush to the other side, for in the waiting we do find grace. Waiting is the journey, and its a journey that strengthens you and your faith -- not always an easy lesson to grasp or accept. My family and I have been on this kind of journey over the past year+ and while many of the things we have dealt with (mostly with the church) have been excruciating, I believe that somewhere in my broken and slowly-mending heart that there will be time when I will look back on this and see the grace and God's goodness, and I will come to realize that it had to be this way. Waiting can hurt, but it is in the waiting that we grow.
Happy almost-birthday, Heather! I remember Jen telling me of this story and it was sweet to be reminded of it. I too can just picture the traditional tree-cutting, but man ... it couldn't have been comfortable! :)
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