Waiting

Samuel spent the day with Ann and Seth today. When I came home from work I walked into our bedroom to find Ann and Seth doing school work at the computer and Samuel rolling around on the bed being a boy. I stopped in the doorway and in my best surprise look and voice I said to Samuel, “Where did you come from?” Without hesitation he replied, “My daddy brought me.” This was a very simple, very innocent exchange of pleasantries between an adult and a child.

After leaving to vote in the primary election, I returned home to dig our garden. I got the tiller out, put on my gloves and began to turn the earth inside out. As I was working on this, Seth and Sam came out into the yard with badminton racquets and shuttlecocks. I was able to watch the boys hit the shuttlecocks back and forth, forth and back as I circled the gardens ever shrinking perimeter with the tiller. About half way through the job at hand I stopped to rest. Ann walked by with a fist full of cuttings for me to dig into the earth. For some reason I was prompted to ask Ann, “Does Samuel ever ask for his mom or dad?” Ann replied, “He speaks of them but doesn’t ask for them.”

As I restarted the tiller to resume my digging the Holy Spirit spoke to me. He left me know that the same innocent confidence that Samuel displays in knowing that his father is coming back for him is the same confidence that I should have, all should have, in knowing that our Father is coming back. Did you catch that? God used Samuel, his innocence and his relationship to his father as a breathtaking object lesson of faith. A faith so simple but yet purposely profound.

This same principle can be found in the book Endurance, a story about the British Antarctic explorer, Sir Ernest Shackleton. In 1912, Shackleton left England on the HMS Endurance to try and be the first explorer to reach the South Pole. After a series of unfortunate events, Shackleton was forced to leave the majority of his exploration party trapped on the Antarctic continent with no ship, no sled dogs, little hope and the promise that he would return for them. He did return and saved his faithfully waiting yet still functioning party of explorers.

Our Father brought us here where we are today. We are to wait patiently and confidently for His return, knowing full-well that His promise is true. He presented this object lesson to me through Samuel. What a blessing! I share it with you so that you may share it with others. I can understand the emptiness and the helplessness you must feel during this season of your life, being separated from those your love and the things you love to do but please be assured that God is using this time and those who are near and dear to you to further His love.

*~*

So I'm waiting for you Jesus, cause I know that those who wait,

They will mount with wings like eagles, they will run and not grow faint,

They will walk and not grow weary, their strength will be renewed,

Coming from You.

So I wait, I'm waiting for you, waiting for you.

So come back soon, I'm waiting for you. - Rich Mullins

Dan

Some names have changed to protect identities.