I'd just returned home after taking Peter to school and was preoccupied--thinking of all that needed to be done on a busy Monday. Bingley ran ahead of me, dropping his stick in favor of a bigger one--we have quite the impressive collection, if you need any firewood, by the way. When I glanced down to see his latest acquisition, I suddenly spotted these hopeful little sprouts of green poking up through the brown, barren soil of our pitiful looking garden.
Who would've thought such a tiny, seemingly insignificant thing could deliver such a flash of joy? I think C.S.Lewis calls it being "surprised by joy." But it did. Quite literally a bolt of joy that stopped me in my tracks.
After all the waiting and waiting...thinking winter would never end; that numb fingers, frigid toes, heavy down coats, and monochromatic brown, barren gardens would seemingly be here forever...But no! These first sprouts of spring remind us--it's coming! "For lo the winter is past..." (Song of Sol.2:11)
Yet here's the thing--it's been happening all along...just hidden from our eyes. Just because we can't see something, doesn't mean it's not happening. All those months of waiting, and just a few weeks back it looked all seemed so hopelessly far away. Our garden--oh mercy, what a discouraging mess. The trees--unforgivingly bare. The greenway--ice, mud, brown (which, in case you haven't noticed, is not my favorite color). Yuck. The world seemed stuck in winter-neutral.
We were all waiting...waiting...waiting.
And it all reminded me once again, that as long we live on this planet, we will always be waiting on something. Waiting to finish school. Waiting to get married. Waiting to have a child. Waiting for the children to go to school. Waiting on college admissions. Waiting on a job. Waiting on that medical test result. Waiting for restoration of a relationship. Waiting and waiting.
But while we wait, God works!
Spring reminds us afresh--while you wait and think nothing is happening...something is happening. Only you can't see it.
A few weeks back, when the ground was frozen and brown, the trees bare, the landscape bleak, we all assumed we were stuck in winter and spring had decided to enjoy an extended vacation somewhere in south Florida. After all, that's all our eyes could see, right?
Yet deep beneath the ground, roots were growing and preparing to send forth shoots of new life. Buds were slowly forming within those barren-looking branches. Beneath that brown, lifeless surface that we could see, God was moving and working and bringing forth all kinds of new life in amazing ways we couldn’t see.
And at just the right moment, after all our waiting when it appeared nothing was happening, suddenly bright green leaves, buds, sprouts begin to spring forth! New life, new scents, new beauty are being birthed right before our eyes. Yeah sure, now we can begin to see it. But here’s the thing--God was working all along. That new life was teeming just beneath the surface--only none of it was visible with our eyes.
"Faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen." (Heb.11:1)
"So we fix our eyes not what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal." (2 Cor.4:18)
That’s exactly what the Lord is doing in your waiting times as well. Almighty God is always moving and working behind the scenes in powerful ways you cannot see and do not imagine. Even now, He is preparing a new song for you to sing and birthing new hopes. new plans, new dreams.
While we wait, God works...and He is working and moving tirelessly and will not quit until that which He has begun in you has been completed. All for your good. All for His glory.
So whatever waiting time you might feel yourself stuck in right now--trust Him. Trust Him. Trust that He is working. Trust that He is fulfilling His every promise. Trust that He will finish all that He's begun in you. Trust that nothing, nothing, nothing will thwart His perfect will for your life.
Look to the signs of spring and be reminded that God was working and preparing rebirth in His world all along, even when you couldn't see it with your eyes. And He is doing that very thing in your life as well.
To God be the glory.
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