Waiting…
Waiting…
Waiting…
In the doctor’s waiting room I glance at other “waiters”. We are all waiting for that call: our name. I notice a knee jiggling up and down relentlessly; a thumb flicking a smart phone screen; a studied inspection of a fingernail.
At times, it is hard work to be relaxed. We wait. We work. We stress. We press the minutes to pass.
Life is a waiting room. We wait for spring. We wait for the pandemic to end. We wait for a baby to be born. We wait for the coffee to perk. We wait for death.
Is a waiting time just minutes ticking by until I can get into action? Maybe, maybe not. But waiting time is an opportunity.
Waiting for my name to be called as I sat in the hallway of a medical building recently, I studied the painting on the wall. Wide white and grey lines, some curved, some straight and some arced had been thickly brushed on canvas; it was placed on a long wall painted bland, light grey/beige. “Why?” I thought, “Why carefully place such a blah piece of work on such a bare wall in a long, empty hallway?”
A few days later, in a different medical building, I sat opposite an exquisite picture of several tulip-like flowers embroidered in bold, bright colours with different kinds of yarns and threads. The detail, intricacy and beautiful, contrasting hues energized my mind.
The first painting evoked chaos and a sense that nothing matters. The second evoked precision and vibrancy.
At times, life does not make sense. I cannot figure it out. I do not have an answer. And it does not matter. I must live with the ambiguity. But I do understand what David said, “Wait for the Lord; be strong, and let your heart take courage; wait for the Lord!” (Psalm 27:14)
When facing an unknown, a troubling unknown, a gnawing problem that seems to have no solution, it is good to wait on the Lord.
In her novel, The American Flaggs, Kathleen Norris writes of a young woman in such a predicament. A wise old grandfather gave her this advice: “In a place of hurt be kind and wait. You will know what to do.” She did wait. She was kind. She was even kind to those who had been unkind to her. And, she did, eventually, know what to do.
After a time of waiting patiently on the Lord, I will know what to do.
by Andrea Kidd
