Last week, I was walking past some dead-looking garden beds, barren and desolate, covered in old leaves crumbled by the harshness of winter. Those patches of ground appeared far from redeeming. But then I noticed tiny little labels, not just wishes for what the gardener wants to come forth, not just where seeds were planted, but signs of hope, seeing beyond what it looks like now, and grasping what is yet to emerge. Something is growing there. We just cannot see it yet. And often it surprises us what comes out of our efforts, even in what we so carefully label, even in what we don't realize we have planted..
Yesterday I ran through what appeared the deadness of trees and the ravages of winter. But I could not outrun what was happening there in that wilderness. Moment by moment, the landscape was changing, like a tsunami wave of green. Spring is invading. And suddenly, before my eyes, the bleakness is being redeemed.
Behold I am doing a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it? I will make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert. Isaiah 43. 19
This beauty was maturing, waiting just below the surface, ready to burst forth in celebration. We are so unaware of what God is up to. That which God is bringing forth is already in motion.
We pray and see nothing. But nothing is just our myopic vision in it. And God says, "Now watch this."
Whereas we were anxious for this renewal back in cold January, the results are just not the same when we try to hurry God up. God says, "Wait." We tap our feet. We need not think of it as waiting. There is neither too early nor too late in God's Kingdom. He is the Creator of time. He is not restricted by it.
When we pray, we bring our concerns, joys, worries, and wonders before the Lord. Let those things sit and absorb. They are not lying fallow in impossible rock-hard soil. God brings all things into being in His time. It is not that God is late, too busy, or flagrantly ignoring us. We are the ones not ready yet. The situation may not have ripened. Our hearts may have not matured enough yet.
When God responds, "Wait on Me," there are profound, life-changing reasons for it. And it is not all about us.
I felt an urgency to write this blog today, because even by tomorrow, even by this afternoon, even by the time you might read this, the world will look so different. The landscape is unfolding by the minute every day. The seasons are constantly changing. And so are our seasons. How much we miss, a billion details of God's goodness of which we are oblivious.
Our long-awaited spring is not coming. It is already here. Next is already in motion, right around the corner and right under our very feet. All through winter, God was preparing His creation for the grand re-opening, nurturing roots far below our radar. And all through what has appeared as a black and white ordinary time in our lives, God is preparing, nurturing and strengthening us for what is and what is to come. His goodness is ripening all over us.
And we realize God does not just toss our prayers aside, or ignore our pleas, or forget our words. He does not just hear our prayers. God listens. And He acts. Although it may feel like we never see an outcome, God is still working on it. His timing is not our own. It is not for us to make sense of it, nor to see the end wrapped up with a bow, but perhaps gradually grasp the next step in God’s grander narrative.
In his deeply thoughtful book The Sound of Life’s Unspeakable Beauty, author and German luthier Martin Schleske writes about the character and response of the Almighty:
“We need a greater respect for God and God’s timing to withstand the danger of asking only about the immediate usefulness of things and allowing nothing to ripen and mature.”
God redeems each situation, difficulty, and patches of hard ground, in extraordinary and supernatural ways we don’t always realize, but …the seed sprouts and grows, we know not how. Mark 4. 27
And suddenly, we catch a glimpse of His wonders.
Holy, holy, holy, is the LORD of hosts; the whole earth is full of His glory! Isaiah 6. 3
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