I received three potted amaryllis bulbs at the end of November from my sister Rhonda.  Over the years I have grown several with great success and I was eagerly expecting the same.  I followed all the directions, put them near a window and watered faithfully for weeks expecting to see some lush green growth topped with beautiful flowers by Christmas. 

Day after day, week after week they looked the same, like dead bulbs in the dirt.  After 7 weeks I was just about ready to throw the whole pot in the trash and be done with it.  Then one day I saw a slight green shoot peeking out the top and celebrated that perhaps all my watering and waiting was not in vain.

Now, finally in late-February there are some gorgeous magenta-tipped white blooms – just as I had hoped.

Because I was impatient, I just about tossed out some lovely flowers-to-be. But because of that slightly ambiguous word – hope – I faithfully continued to water and keep them in the light so maybe, just maybe they would grow like I had expected. 

And then I got thinking about situations for which I have been praying for years – even decades.  The healing of a relationship, the growth of a marriage, the softening of hearts, and the healing of a broken body.  I know Jesus hears my prayers and is working things out for my good but sometimes I get frustrated and think,

Why should I care anymore?

 What good is it doing?

 Will anything ever change?

Have you ever had those thoughts, when the prayers you pray seem to be hitting the ceiling and dropping straight down again?  It’s hard to keep on loving, keep on showing up, keep on doing good in the face of evil.   In fact, there’s a proverb written over 3,000 years ago stating,

Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but a longing fulfilled is a tree of life.

Proverbs 13:12

Obviously waiting over 9 weeks for amaryllis bulbs to bloom is much different than waiting years for something you’re hoping for.  I think of women who have waited for years to have a baby, suffering through months of infertility and disappointment.  Or those who have suffered abuse and have waited for years to see that abuser convicted.  Sometimes it seems as if God is on mute as we pray for the people we love year after year, hoping justice will be served. 

I ponder the story of Abraham and Sarah who were promised a child from God and waited 25 years before it came to be.  David, who after he was anointed King, had to wait another 10 years running and hiding in caves in order to keep from King Saul’s vengeance.  Good things do happen, promises are kept but sometimes it’s hard to keep on going, every day putting one foot in front of another when we repeatedly hear the voices whispering in our heads,

Nothing is ever going to change, it will be this way forever...

Certainly it feels like it at times, but the truth is – life is changing every day.  Just as imperceptibly as plants grow – we cannot see it day by day – during months and years they do grow.  God is listening and working so at just the right time the beautiful bloom will appear.

Do not be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, this he will also reap…Let us not lose heart in doing good,

for in due time, we will reap if we do not grow weary.

Galatians 6:7,9

Have good courage and confidence because God is doing a good work, and He will bring it to completion.

I love the following prayer from Tim Keller:

Lord, I confess I do not understand your timing. If I were in charge of history and my life I would have arranged things differently.

But I cannot see the whole picture, I cannot see from beginning to end, and so I wait for you in obedience and prayer.  Amen.