When You’re Waiting to Bloom
“Since ancient times no one has heard, no ear has perceived, no eye has seen any god besides You, who acts on behalf of those who wait for Him.” – Isaiah 64:4 NIV
It seems we’re always waiting.
Waiting for better days or better opportunities.
Waiting for tides to turn or time to pass.
We wait in the wings and wait in line.
And … we wait to bloom.
photo: Raye Wortel
Bloom. Right now everything is in bloom. All around, the earth is bursting with growth and life. Creation is doing the thing it was created to do, and you wonder …
When can I bloom too?
With a restlessness in your soul, you go about your days. Oh sure you’re living, but somehow it feels like an in-between place. You work and raise and wonder what all this has to do with what you were created for, and secretly you pray:
“God is this it? Is this what you created me for? Because it feels like I’m caught in a cocoon. Somedays I can hardly breathe. You’ve given me dreams, but they’re left out of reach. You’ve given me desires, but I can’t act on them. I fear time and inspiration will fade away and I’ll miss my purpose.”
Doors seem closed at every turn. What looked like possibility yesterday, looks absurd today, and you feel like hope has sucker-punched you in the chest.
We feel forgotten in the midst of all this waiting.
But here’s a question, or two, or three, or four …
Could we be gracious to God while he is gracious to us?
Could we trust he’s ever-present, ever-Sovereign, and ever-acting in our waiting?
Could we believe that every mundane task or ordinary day is the means by which he prepares us to bloom?
And could we suppose that the “confinement” we feel is his protective hand shielding us while we work out our faithful reliance of him?
“The LORD is good to those who wait for him, to the soul who seeks him.” (Lamentations 3:25 ESV)
Yahweh is good in our waiting. He is so good.
“Waiting does not diminish us … 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.” (Romans 8:22-25 MSG)