It’s early morning on St Patrick’s Day, after a long day of waiting for my daughter’s labor to progress. I’m sitting in the hospital labor and delivery while all the personnel go about their various jobs, getting my daughter ready to deliver my grandson. I missed the birth of my granddaughter by fifteen minutes (cross-country delayed flight…inept cab driver), so it’s especially sweet to be here throughout the entire process and see a fresh little person, with some of my blood running through his veins, breathe his first.

Babies require so much waiting, don’t they? You wait (usually) to conceive. You wait the nine months for them to grow to term. Then, you wait hours to actually deliver them into the world. Though it seems long, I think the waiting does more than build a baby. I think it does a lot to prepare hearts of the parents for the big changes coming their way. It allows them time to read up on parenting, adjust finances, dream and plan for the new little life they’ll be molding, and get their brains around the importance of their new role, not to mention decorating the nursery! 

It’s true that while the wait for a baby is certainly worth it in the end, a long wait, in general, doesn’t always leave us with such a great prize. Sometimes we wait and wait for something for which we’ve dreamed and it doesn’t come to fruition at all, or if it does, it may not look exactly as we’d hoped. But, even still, a long wait does the same for us as the new parents-to-be. It prepares our hearts for changes to come and allows us time and opportunity to come into line with God’s will in every situation. It strengthens us in ways that fast answers don’t…can’t. 

Certainly, this special morning finds me thankful for the long wait for babies, knowing the gift that will fill my arms in a few hours. But I’m also thankful for what happens in the other times of waiting in my life, difficult though they may be, as each instance weaves a strong thread that binds my heart (and yours) to the Father of us all.

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