Today is Thursday and it is 40 weeks plus 7 days for my daughter and her first pregnancy.  First babies are often late, but that is of little comfort to her.  So she’s trying to fill her overdue days with getting her nails done, baking a cake for their small group meeting, going with a friend to the pool, anything to not think about how long this child is taking to make its entrance into the world.

And the rest of us are waiting too.  Not like she is, of course, but it is interesting how I’ve not planned anything for the last week because I’ve planned to be with her.  I’ve changed my plane tickets twice already and if she doesn’t deliver tomorrow I’ll have to change them again!

I’m packed for travel, she’s packed for the hospital.  Everyone in the family jumps when they see her name on their cell phone when it rings. 

As she and I have talked about waiting on baby I’ve been reminded about how we have to wait in life on so many things; waiting in check out lines, waiting in traffic, waiting for school to start, waiting for school to be out for the summer, waiting for graduations, waiting for marriage, waiting on a job, waiting to get pregnant, waiting on God’s timing in these and so many other situations in life.   God is at work in the waiting for all of us just as He is at work with this little life that clearly has a few more hours of being knit together in its mother’s womb.  God is at work in the hidden places.  He is at work in the waiting.

It’s been a good reminder for me.

II. A New Kind Of Waiting

Great News!!!  The baby was born early this morning and we rejoice at her arrival, little Miss Molly.

Bad News…something is wrong.  she didn’t cry for four minutes and it appears she has a murmur and they don’t know what else.  She was rushed to the neo-natal intensive care unit.  It’s good that we have them but it’s bad when your baby has to go there. 

And so now a new kind of waiting begins.  It’s four in the afternoon on Friday and I’m on a plane bound for Denver.  I can’t get there fast enough.  And we don’t know much more than we did shortly after birth.  Doctors have come and gone and the new parents who got no sleep the entire night before as they were in labor, now can’t sleep for concern for their precious baby.  And they wait for news, any signs of hope in tone of voice or words of comfort and encouragement.  And we, all the family and friends on our side and on his side, wait for news from this weary overwhelmed couple.

“Wait for the Lord; be strong and let your heart take courage; wait for the Lord.”  Ps. 27:14.

It is good to know that God knows.  He has all the answers, knows all the plans, all the purposes and above all He always intends good for His children.  That is our comfort and theirs as we all wait.  To quote one of my favorite writers, Andre Seu, “It is a good thing to wait upon the Lord in a well-watered land.  It is a holy thing to wait upon Him in a barren landscape.”  God is near.

III. Waiting On Heaven

It is early Sunday morning and our daughter and her husband and Dennis and I have gotten the worst kind of news.  Their new little daughter has multiple problems all from one malformation; an aneurysm in a vein in her brain.  We spent most of Saturday in tears after the meeting with the team of doctors at Children’s who with much grace and tenderness and kindness delivered the prognosis.

It will be another difficult day as brothers and sisters and our son-in-law’s parents fly in.  And there will be more of these days to follow. 

The certainty of heaven is our rock.  Knowing we will see her and each other again makes it bearable.  Faith in the unchangeableness of God’s promise to never leave us or forsake us gives strength.  Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and forever.  Nothing can separate us from His love.  And one day there will be no more night, no more sorrow, no more tears, no more pain. 

But for now we wait.  We wait for heaven.   In the midst of this great grief, I realized waiting for heaven is truly our daily assignment.  I get so busy with the details of living that the focus on my destination becomes fuzzy.  But now it is clearly in sight.  The important is not blurred.  What really matters is staring us in the face.  And it is good because God is good.

So today we wait for more precious time with this baby and we wait for Heaven.

Come quickly Lord Jesus.