Much of life is spent waiting. As children, we wait with our parents for our next milestones—to crawl, to walk, to run, to begin school. We wait for when we’re 16 and can finally drive. We wait for holidays, for graduations, for being adults, and for living on our own. We wait to find love, for meeting a spouse and marrying. We wait for the births of our children and wait with them through all their milestones in life. Along the way, we wait for hardships to pass, for healing of relationships, for lessening of grief for those we’ve lost. At times we wait for physical healing. And ultimately we wait for death and for the day when we’ll be reunited with loved ones who’ve gone before us and for the day when we’ll finally meet our Savior, residing for eternity surrounded with love and peace.

During our life journeys, we pray about things that concern us and then await God’s answers; we wait for God to act. But at times we may become frustrated when answers don’t come.

Waiting for God to answer prayers is nothing new.

The Jewish people historically have gone through many periods of waiting as well. Noah and his family waited inside the ark for at least 370 days—longer than a year! No doubt at times they wondering if the flood waters would ever recede, as they anxiously awaited the day when they could finally leave the ark and return to dry land. Abraham and Sarah waited 25 years after God promised them descendants, before his promise was finally fulfilled with the birth of their son Isaac, when Abraham was 100 years old and Sarah was 90. The Israelites waited for famines to pass and for when their time in exile in Egypt would finally end. Their exile lasted 430 years! Then after finally escaping Egypt, they with Moses waited another 40 years, wandering in the wilderness, for the day when they (without Moses) could finally enter the promised land. There are many stories of waiting in the Bible.

And the Jewish people waited for the Messiah to come, to free them from Roman oppression. And yet when the Messiah had come, many failed to recognize it was he and failed to understand what his commission was.

Sometimes we aren’t that much different than the Jews of Jesus' day. They were so focused on the future day when the Messiah would come, that they failed see that he had already arrived. How often do we spend so much time waiting for and focusing on something happening in the future, that we fail to see the blessings of today?

At times the disciples seemed to understand Jesus’ purposes, but other times Jesus became very frustrated with his disciples, especially when he needed to explain his parables to them. Sometimes I think even today that God becomes frustrated with his people, and yet we are assured that God always loves us and always cares about us. Even so, many things that happen in life we have great difficulty seeing how they could be part of a larger plan for our good. Likely there are many questions we will want to ask God after we are in heaven with him. We often wonder where is God and why has he failed us? Like the Jews, sometimes we fail to see or recognize him or his workings in our lives.

On Transfiguration Sunday we recall about the experience of Peter, James, and John as they were on the mountain with Jesus and saw him transfigured before them, that “his face shone like the sun, and his clothes became bright as light.” We’re told that Moses and Elijah were also present. But Peter, while perhaps trying to be hospitable in his suggestion to setup a tent for each of them, once again misunderstood the purpose of the encounter. So often the Jewish people and even the disciples misunderstood what the Lord was trying to teach them. They were suddenly overshadowed by a bright cloud, from which a voice spoke, saying, “This is my Son, the Beloved; with him I am well pleased; listen to him!” The disciples fell to the ground in fear, and Jesus comforted them. Even in our own lives sometimes God reveals things to us in a bigger, more easily recognizable way, and for sure this was one of those kinds of moments. But other times through our faith, we need to trust that God continues to work in our lives, even when we don’t see or feel his presence, even when we don’t understand.

How often do we, like the Jewish people, fail to see Jesus, to recognize the workings of the Lord in our lives? Often we pray to the Lord about situations that concern us. We seek God and his help, but how often do we fail to see his answers, especially if we have a time of waiting for his answers or if he answers differently than how we had prayed? How often are we too focused on the small picture and fail to see the larger picture, that all things are working together for our “ultimate” good?

Although during Jesus time on earth and thereafter eyes were opened for some to recognize Jesus as the Savior of those who believe in him and that he paid the price for our sins, even today there are others who continue in waiting—some still don’t know or recognize Jesus as their savior.

Most if not all of us grew up in Christian families and have never known a time when the Lord wasn’t part of our lives. But what is our responsibility to those who don’t yet know him? To those who continue in waiting?

Several years ago at a church I was involved with we as a congregation were together exploring evangelism. We were reading and studying together the book The Purpose Driven Life by Rick Warren and watched a corresponding video about evangelism. I continue to recall in that video it being said that few people have ever been saved by getting in their faces and telling them that they’re going to hell. Rather, he purports that the effective way to reach people is when they see how we live out our lives, when they see how we treat others, when they see our peace and contentment, and then they come to want what we have. It opens a door for conversation. Others are watching us and how we live. We have a responsibility as Christians to represent the Lord well in how we live out our lives and in how we interact with others. I have a saying that Christianity is a verb, because verbs are action words, and being a Christian involves acting in ways that represent the Lord well. If we say we are Christians, we need to live in such a way that others can see Christ in us.

We will always have times of waiting in our lives. At the Transfiguration, Peter, James and John’s time of waiting for the Messiah was over—they had found him and recognized him. As we continue to await the day when we will one day meet the Savior face to face, may we all represent Christ well in our interactions with others, showing them the love and compassion of the Father who loved us while we were yet sinners and sent his beloved Son to die in our place. May we show Jesus to others in how we live our lives.

Thanks be to God. Amen.

To read more of Jo Gamm Witt's writings,
CLICK HERE

Email

Web Design by

WittPublishing.com