Waiting

Isaiah 30:18

But God’s not finished. He’s waiting around to be gracious to you. He’s gathering strength to show mercy to you. God takes the time to do everything right – everything. Those who wait around for him are the lucky ones.

I just finished reading Greg’s post and his reflections on waiting. And I identify with him in that waiting often tries my patience. But I also think of the times I have waited in anticipation, like waiting for the day to arrive when we leave on a vacation, or waiting for the day when each of our children were born. That feels different than waiting in the dentist’s office or waiting in line at the passport office.

In this verse, I was drawn to the idea of God waiting. That turns some of my thinking upside down. I so often think that I’m the one who waits … on Him, for Him. But to think that God is waiting around to be gracious to me … and it doesn’t sound like he’s impatient about it either, because it says that he’s gathering strength to show mercy to me. Now I know I need a lot of mercy, but so much that the God of the Universe must gather his strength to show it to me? I guess I must, because if I find myself in the preceding verse where it says “there’ll be nothing left of you [me] – a flagpole on a hill with no flag…” – how good it feels to be met with grace and mercy in that place.

Once again, I feel like he’s saying he has so much more for me than I can begin to wrap my mind around. I’ll wait around … I want to be one of the lucky ones.

Posted by Candice Letkeman