Good morning…
You early risers had to wait for today’s message, just like I was forced to wait by the computer glitches I wrote about yesterday (touch “Previous” above to revisit our post). As I waited and waited, the prayer forming in me morphed into more.
“God, help me to be patient with Your timing. Please hold me as I wait amid the wreckage of my will. Sensing Your skin on my naked skin, teach me again that ‘hard’ is not bad, ‘hard’ mixed with hope grows greater good. As my powerlessness is exposed once more, allow me to trust that You are in the process of transforming everything. Trusting You is enough. Surrendering all of me to all of You, I rest aware of Your tender loving care.”
Just like the words of my prayer enlarged in my waiting, today I enlarge this photo I love. This statue, my all-time favorite, lives at Ignatius House Retreat Center. Several times a month I sit still beside this nurturing symbol, thinking to myself: “Where do I end as God begins?”
All around us we observe a pregnant creation. The difficult times of pain throughout the world are simply birth pangs. But it’s not only around us; it’s within us. The Spirit of God is arousing us within. We’re also feeling the birth pangs. These sterile and barren bodies of ours are yearning for full deliverance. That is why waiting does not diminish us, any more than waiting diminishes a pregnant mother. We are enlarged in the waiting. We, of course, don’t see what is enlarging us. But the longer we wait, the larger we become, and the more joyful our expectancy (Romans 8:22-25, MSG).
…Sue…
