I Have Waited and Waited!

By Deacon Norbert Gaudet, Raymore, RC Church

January 15, 2025

Key points from this story:

• Waiting is a common experience for all ages
• We often wait for personal aspirations and goals
• Waiting is integral to biblical salvation history
• God hears prayers even when answers seem delayed
• Our whole life is a time of waiting
• Patience and trust in God's timing is crucial

We all wait for one thing or another, young and old alike. Children want to be teenagers. Teenagers want to be adults. They wait to be older so they can be more independent, make their own decision. While they wait, they sometimes miss the joy of the present, their childhood. We all have aspirations and we generally have to wait for them to come to fruition. We wait in line at a store. We wait at the doctor's office. We wait for a TV show or a sports game to come on TV. It seems we spend a lot of time waiting. My son and family flew home from New Brunswick for Christmas. I waited with anticipation for his arrival. Now, he's left and there's an emptiness. What am I to wait for now? It seems if I am not waiting for something, there is a gap.

I'd like to share part of an article written by Jeff Smith, President of the Word Among Us daily meditations magazine. He writes "We all know people who love to map out their plans far in advance. We also know people who are more carefree and easygoing. I tend to be a planner. I plan.... And then I wait. Sometimes I have to wait a long time to see how much my plans are in sync with God's plans." He goes on to say "Waiting is woven into salvation history. God's people waited forty years before they could enter the promised land. Later, they waited another five hundred years for the Messiah to come!" Elderly Elizabeth and Zechariah, the parents of John the Baptist, prayed and waited for a child. Then finally, one day in the Temple, Zechariah heard an angel tell him, "Your prayer has been heard" (Lk 1:13).

"Perhaps you, too, have prayed and prayed, waited and waited for the Lord to answer your prayer. Maybe you have prayed for a friend suffering from a chronic illness. Maybe you prayed for the Lord to help you overcome some personal weakness in your life. Maybe you have prayed for blessing upon your children. And you have waited for God to answer. Even if it feels as if the Lord hasn't yet answered your prayer, you can still trust that he has heard you! God hears you every time you lift your heart to him. Just as he heard Zechariah and Elizabeth the first time they prayed for a child, he hears you whenever you cry out to him. He is very close to you, closer than you know. And he is working out his good and perfect plans in his own wisdom and timing."

We live in time and space but God doesn't. "There is no difference in the Lord's sight between one day and a thousand years; to him the two are the same. The Lord is not slow to do what he has promised, as some think." (2 Peter 3:8-9) Throughout our life we spend a lot of time waiting. But really our whole life is a time of waiting because "My soul is waiting for the Lord". So, I wait and I wait. Lord, give me the Grace of Waiting for God's plan to unfold in my life.