In joyful anticipation, my friends Mary and Joe prepared for their new baby with a well-furnished nursery and expectant hearts.
However, they were not sure of the arrival date since the infant was thousands of miles away. Still, they knew she was coming. The foreign adoption agency had assured them the baby they’d named Emma was on her way, but first, there were the inevitable paperwork delays.
During this difficult time, Mary said they had a unique way of coping. “Joe has a watch with two dials,” she told me, “and he has one set to local time and the other to the time in Emma’s country. That way we know exactly when she eats, plays, or sleeps, and somehow this makes the waiting easier.”
Before they knew it, they received word all was ready. At the right time, Emma was settled in that long-planned nursery.
As Joe and Mary discovered, waiting was difficult. I’ve found it’s the same for me. Yet as the psalmist said, often as we wait, we become familiar with God’s timing, and we find that His is far greater than ours. What seems like an eternity for us is a split second in duration for Him. It’s as if he were saying, “My time is not your time.”
Since I know God has a perfect plan for my life, I must wait, for I know His reasons are perfect. And that’s all I need to know.
Don’t let your bad days diminish your faith in God’s timing.
(Photo courtesy of pixabay.)
(For more devotions, visit Christian Devotions.)
Anne Adams is a retired church staffer living in Athens, Texas, where she writes a historical column for the local newspaper. Her book Brittany, Child of Joy, tells about her mentally disabled daughter and was published in 1986 by Broadman. She has taught junior college history and has published in Christian and secular publications for forty years.