So you’ve a little creature to tend next week, and you’re waiting on money and certain arrangements to fall into place. I can almost see you glancing at the clock, wondering when the word will come. It is a small thing, some might say, but small things have a way of tapping us on the shoulder all day long, until our hearts grow fretful and the minutes feel heavy. The ship of your mind is in shallow water just now, and the tide hasn’t yet come in to lift you over the bar. But let me tell you a quiet truth: while you wait, your God is waiting too. Not idly, He never idles, but waiting to be gracious to you in this very pinch of time. There is a “therefore” in His delays that we cannot always trace, but it is always shaped like mercy.
I am glad the matter is not in your own hands entirely, for then you might be tempted to run ahead and snatch at unripe fruit, to force a door that is meant to open of its own accord. How often we make a tangle of things because we cannot bear to wait! We rush into some policy of our own, we strain and scheme, and all the while the Lord is sitting by the well, as it were, wearied with our restlessness but ready to give the living water in His own good season. You recall how our Saviour Himself sat down at Sychar, thirsty and tired, while His disciples went off to buy bread. He knows what it is to be dependent on ordinary means, on others coming back with food, on a cord and bucket He did not have. He did not chide the need, nor did He fret. He simply waited, and in the waiting the woman came. Your little needs, the money, the confirmation, even the care of that animal, are not beneath His notice. He who noted the sparrow’s fall and the lily’s clothing has His eye upon you and upon the creature you’ll be watching.
Here is a homely picture for you: a ship out on the sea. All the water in the ocean cannot hurt her so long as it stays outside. The danger begins only when it gets inside. So it is with your heart this week. The uncertainty about funds and plans is the water outside; keep it from seeping into the hold. Let not your heart be troubled. There is a little bird in your bosom that can sing in the dark, the love of God in Christ Jesus. Let it sing, and your soul shall ride at anchor though the waves fuss and foam.
You are waiting, you say. Then wait upon the Lord. Let Him be the object of your soul just now, not the resolving of every detail. Bring your case to Him plainly: “Lord, I have declared my ways to you, this small pile of cares, this creature that needs me, these pounds that must come, this uncertainty that gnaws at me, and you heard me.” He has indeed heard. And having heard, He will not mock you with a stone when you ask for bread. He may keep you waiting a little longer, not to torment you, but to teach your soul the quietness that comes from leaning wholly upon Him. The older a ship grows, the more times she has weathered the gale, the more sure we are that she needs her Captain still. No man is so seasoned that he can do without the God of his salvation, and that salvation includes the mundane freight of a Tuesday afternoon.
Take heart, then. The money will come when it is best that it come. The plans will settle as He decrees. And while you wait, you may find that the One who waits to be gracious to you draws so near that you almost forget the pinch in the sweetness of His company. Look after that small beast faithfully, as unto the Lord, and let each ordinary duty be a step on a solid path, even when the mist of uncertainty hangs low.
Pray with me now, will you?
Father, you see this dear soul, a little anxious over things that are near at hand, money yet to arrive, arrangements yet to be confirmed, a pet to be minded. You are the God of the sparrow and the God of the tiller of the soil. You who wait to be gracious, bend down and calm this heart. Let the peace of Christ rule within, though outward circumstances are still unsettled. Provide what is needed in the very hour it is needed. Teach this waiting one that you are always faithful, always on time, and that your delays are never denials but the framings of a wise love. Let the indoor work of the soul go on sweetly, quiet trust, childlike dependence, inward song, while the outdoor matters are in your hand. We ask it in the name of Jesus, who sat weary at the well and who ever lives to make intercession for us. Amen.