By God’s delay to solve man’s “alone” problem in the Garden of Eden, Adam’s heart was prepared to greet God’s gift of a “suitable helper” with supreme joy. The delay was not the product of God’s displeasure with Adam but of His love.
Think of a young man who intends to “pop the question” to his beloved. He has covertly determined her ring size, found creative ways to benignly discover what she would like, and secretly purchased the perfect engagement ring. Now he delays to give his gift until he can arrange for the perfect moment. Love compels this delay as he plans a special occasion that will climax in dramatically revealing a ring and placing it on the finger of his intended. He wants everything about this moment to shout, “I love you with all my heart.”
While the young man is engaged in his clandestine activity, his bride-to-be feels the pull of two opposing forces. She can wait patiently, trusting in her heart that she is loved. Or she can yield to fear, doubting by what she sees (or actually doesn’t see) that her yearning will ever be fulfilled. The longer her wait, the easier it becomes to trust her eyes more than her heart.
This same battle makes waiting on God a challenge: We must hold fast in our hearts what we know from God’s Word while denying our perceptions the power to shake our trust. The longer the wait, the more easily our eyes convince us that there is no good gift coming.
In the summer of 2010 and shortly after our oldest son graduated from law school, he was diagnosed with cancer. Praise God for two gifts He provided in the year that followed: He healed our son and delivered him from an overwhelming financial burden. But there was another gift that God withheld. We prayed; we pled with God; we cried; we battled discouragement; yet, we saw no daylight.
From the time of his diagnosis till March of 2014, our son applied for hundreds of jobs with judges, law firms, and legislatures. He was personally interviewed dozens of times. He was told “you’re our second choice” for several positions. (Jobs are not given to the second choice candidate.) But not once in the span of almost four years did someone say, “We want you!”
These were dark days and it was hard to hold ourselves in a place of trust. This excerpt from my journal (dated December 23, 2013) captures it: “Today, Austin should hear back from [a firm where he interviewed]. In every respect, as far as we can see, this is an ideal setup. I have been praying non-stop for months and this looks like a perfect and impossible miracle. If he is rejected, the pull of despair will be overwhelming. A ‘no’ will bring us close to breaking – I am afraid of this one. Despite my fear, I am thanking You God, in advance, for whatever You give because I am choosing to trust in Your goodness more than my perceptions.” A few days later, my son learned he was their second choice.
Part of what God used to sustain me were the lessons from Beauty of the Barren Land and Blessed Deprivation in Eden. I fixed my trust on these statements: There is no such thing as delay in God’s gift giving; He gives His gifts in the perfect moment; That moment will yet come.
In sadness from watching my good son be unceasingly rejected, I added my voice to the Psalmist: “I wait for the Lord, my soul does wait, and in His word do I hope. My soul waits for the Lord more than the watchmen for the morning; Indeed, more than the watchmen for the morning” (Psalm 130:5–6). Did you catch the phrase, “in His word do I hope?” A bold declaration from the lips of Jesus became the word anchor for my hope: "If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give what is good to those who ask Him!" (Matthew 7:11). If even despicable men give their children good gifts, how much more will my perfect Father give perfectly appropriate gifts to His children who are asking? My mind retraced its steps on this promise a thousand times over. Choosing again and again to rest on His Word and His character, I waited for breakthrough.
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