WAIT

WAIT

Desperately, helplessly, longingly, I cried;
Quietly, patiently, lovingly, God replied.
I pled and I wept for a clue to my fate…
And the Master so gently said, “Wait.”
“Wait? You say wait?" My indignant reply.
“Lord, I need answers, I need to know why!
Is your hand shortened? Or have you not heard?
By faith I have asked, and I’m claiming your Word.
My future and all to which I can relate
Hangs in the balance, and you tell me to Wait?
I’m needing a ‘yes,’ a go-ahead sign.
Or even a ‘no,’ to which I’ll resign.
You promised, dear Lord, that if we believe,
We need but to ask, and we shall receive.
Lord, I’ve been asking, and this is my cry:
I’m weary of asking! I need a reply."
Then quietly, softly, I learned of my fate,
As my Master replied again, “Wait.”
So I slumped in my chair, defeated and taut,
And grumbled to God, “So, I’m waiting…for what?”
He seemed then to kneel, and His eyes met with mine…
And He tenderly said “I could give you a sign.
I could shake the heavens and darken the sun.
I could raise the dead and cause mountains to run.
I could give all you seek and pleased you would be.
You’d have what you want, but you wouldn’t know Me.
You’d not know the depth of My love for each saint.
You’d not know the power that I give to the faint.
You’d not learn to see through clouds of despair;
You’d not learn to trust just by knowing I’m there.
You’d not know the joy of resting in Me
When darkness and silence are all you can see.
You’d never experience the fullness of love
When the peace of My spirit descends like a dove.
You would know that I give, and I save, for a start,
But you’d not know the depth of the beat of My heart.
The glow of My comfort late into the night,
The faith that I give when you walk without sight.
The depth that’s beyond getting just what you ask
From an infinite God who makes what you have last.
You’d never know should your pain quickly flee,
What it means that My grace is sufficient for thee.
Yes, your dearest dreams overnight would come true,
But, oh, the loss, if you missed what I’m doing in you.
So, be silent, my child, and in time you will see
That the greatest of gifts is to truly know Me.
And though oft My answers seem terribly late,
My most precious answer of all is still … 'Wait.'”

~Russell Kelfer


This poem was posted by our mutual friend as a comment on Wade and Alice's blog. It touched me deeply as we wait not so patiently for D & K to come home. So many people have tried to guess at what God is trying to teach us through this. I believe that He wants us to know Him more fully, inside, outside and upside-down. He is equipping us, preparing us, building a firmer foundation for us. He is rooting us more deeply in Him. It is my prayer that He is doing the same in the hearts of our children. This poem says it perfectly.

(Wade & Alice are another couple here at Dover AFB. They spent years trying to get pregnant and then felt God calling them to adopt from China. Over a year into their journey, God blessed them with a pregnancy. They continued the adoption process while waiting for their biological daughter to arrive. Eight months later, three years into the adoption wait, they received a referral for a daughter from China; this little angel was born one day after their other daughter! They are all home together now, a beautiful family. God is good!)