I had fainted, unless I had believed to see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living.  Wait on the Lord: be of good courage, and he shall strengthen thine heart: wait, I say, on the Lord. ~ Psalm 27:13-14

If you’re reading this post or just breathing air then you know what it means. Waiting—an inevitable, perpetual part of life.

Some say Job did this well. This we know from the Word—tribulation worketh patience {Romans 5:3b}.  If you are ultimately going to find patience in tribulation or waiting in general, it’s because you choose to surrender your circumstances to the Sovereign LORD, and thereby bear the fruit of His Spirit. It certainly cannot be worked up.  My four-year-old grandson may not have yet learned this lesson in his daily life. But for a small child, I’d say he’s done well this year as the son of a deployed mother.

The thing about waiting is that you have a hopeful expectation for that which you are waiting for to come to pass. Otherwise, why in the round world are you waiting?

Before Joe and I married, we had already begun to believe for a child in spite of my tied tubes.  We had no preconceived notions of how this might come to pass unless you count the fact that I really anticipated God would perform a divine miracle in my tubes that were cut and tied. I had always believed that He would grant this petition for another child. Yet it wasn’t until six years into our marriage that I came face to face with any doubt, fear, or reservations that I had concerning this promise. Until then, you might say I was cautiously optimistic, hopeful. That changed when—like the three Hebrew children in the fiery furnace—I stared the enemy in the eye and proclaimed: My God is not only able to do this, but I believe that He will do this. Yet if He does not, He is still God. I will not bow; I will not surrender to defeat. And then peace came.

At that point waiting changed. Hebrews 11:1:  Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. When faith kicks in and you grab hold of a promise, it’s as good as had. You’re as content as if you physically held that promise in your arms. For me, this period of time flew by in both the figurative and literal sense. Although I’d stopped counting time by my calendar and trusted solely on the Lord’s plans, it wasn’t long until the doors were opened for His promise to be fulfilled through reverse tubal-ligation. And then just ten days later, the nine month waiting period began for the arrival of our daughter Sophie.

The year of 2013 has been a year of waiting for my family. Having my oldest daughter and mother of my grandson deployed has certainly been uncharted territory. After her pre-deployment training in March, she began her nine month deployment to Kuwait. Nine months. I approached this season like an expectant mother—a lot of growth, some pain, and then great joy in the end. We are in the final trimester. Great joy cometh!

Had I approached the beginning of this year or her nine month deployment anxiously awaiting her arrival, I would’ve missed the joy of a thousand beautiful moments and even the handful of trying ones.  A determination to embrace the moments came with 2013.

Gestation periods aren’t assigned to everything anticipated in this life. Love doesn’t arrive after a strike from Cupid’s arrow. Parenthood cannot always be planned. Even those with the hope of reuniting with a loved one gone before them can’t possibly know how long the wait.

What we can know is that there is a loving Father who waits for all of us. And after that moment we respond to His, “Come,” we begin a journey mapped with innumerable opportunities and ways to experience the wait. And no matter what it is you might be waiting for in this life, I would encourage you to consider from the life of Jesus—who is both fully God the Son and fully man—that there is nothing in this world worth more than the very Presence of God Himself. He endured betrayal, denial, shame, cruelty, death, and even hell and the grave. He willingly did so. All the while, the one thing that He would’ve had pass from Him had it been possible, was separation from the Presence of the Father. Nothing or no one is worth that. Yet this is the price Christ paid for us that we might have the awesome privilege of knowing He is always with us. Always. With Him, even in the midst of life’s hardest of circumstances, the sweetest joy and deepest peace can be found. That which you’ve waited for, that which you might still be waiting for, is as good as had. The joy of the expectation is already achieved. Right there in The Wait.

I can feel the labor pains of the season of waiting for us. The anticipation is rising. Excitement is in the air. This holiday season will be one unlike any we’ve had before when our Soldier Daughter arrives home. I don’t know that it’s possible for me to put into words what that anticipation feels like. But I will tell you that in spite of the longing for the presence of my daughter, in spite of the many hardships that have faced my family this year with its two car wrecks, heart attack, theft, and other surprises—I have found a steady calm, peace unspeakable, and joy indescribable in the Person of Jesus Christ.

And you know what? He is every bit worth The Wait.

Soldiers