A hope injection...

When I get to heaven, after I have spent some serious years in Jesus' arms and perhaps decide that I can come up for air, I will ask him a question. Of course there are all kinds of big, life questions that He may or may not have answered for me by then. That's fine. I don't really need to know. I am a firm believer that He knows what He is doing and I am content to let God be God. I don't need to understand.

But one thing I'm curious about is how much time I spent on earth waiting for Christian. I'm serious. I wait for Christian CONSTANTLY! This is not a complaint, just a statement (no need to switch my bracelet).
I waited for him to ask me out, I waited for him to come home every single day, I wait for him to get off the phone so we can eat, I wait for him to get done in the shower, I wait for him to come home from Europe, I wait for him to call...the list is endless. It really should be one of my job descriptions. Mother, homeschool teacher, piano teacher, chef, laundress, social planner, rememberer of all details (important and not) and waiter for Christian.
When reading that word, one could read "waiter" in a couple different contexts. Both would be appropriate. I wait on him and wait for him. Good thing I love my job! And it doesn't hurt his case that he's so darn cute!

Waiting is a tough thing. Unfortunately, life is chock-full of times of waiting. We wait to be reunited with people we love and miss, we wait 9 months to meet our children, we wait to meet future spouses, we wait for job changes, we wait for answers to prayer.
I wonder if anyone is really good at waiting?
I think sometimes we are better at it than other times. Month 4 of pregnancy is much easier to wait through than month 9! But what are we doing in the waiting? In the meantime.
(definition of meantime: adv. during the intervening time;) I LOVE that!

Well, this leads me to quite possibly my favorite word. HOPE!

(definition of hope: n. A wish or desire accompanied by confident expectation of its fulfillment.)

Tonight, I got a hope injection. Almost two years ago, I got a cello for my birthday. I had been asking for one because all of a sudden, I wanted to play the cello in the worst way. I am pretty sure that inside me is an amazing cellist.
The cello I got was in pretty rough shape. It had no bow and no bridge, which means I couldn't even play with my new toy. It took us until last month to get it in to get fixed, and all that time I waited. It sat in the corner of my bedroom just begging me to allow it to make noise. Finally, about 3 weeks ago, my cello came back to me looking beautiful with its brand new bow and I cried. I was so excited to begin my journey of learning this new instrument I was born to play.

Due to the busy-ness of Spring Break, and a cut on my finger, and just life in general, my cello and I have had about 4 appointments together. Each time I have the opportunity to spend time with it, I am giddy. I just know that the squawks scales and groans harmony my bow is making will be gorgeous music someday. Believe me, my family has to hold on to that hope as well. For now they are in a time of suffering waiting.

But tonight...!! Tonight my girls were singing and playing our new favorite song, Beautiful Things (another song about hope in the waiting), and I grabbed my cello and went out to the piano room and played two gorgeous notes on my cello that sounded simply AMAZING with the piano! I could have cried! There was suddenly hope!! Someday, I will know what I'm doing!!

We simply could not wait for anything if we didn't have hope. Hope is how we begin each day and each prayer. Hope is what starts us on the road toward dreams being realized. Hope is what carries us through when we can't even see the path.

The opposite of hope is a destroyer of life. Hopelessness is the very end of the road and a tragedy. The most miserable person in the saddest conditions can continue through one more day with just the slightest hope that things will get better.

Sometimes all we need is a hope injection. One little thing to remind us that things will get better. That God hasn't forgotten.

Two people that I love deeply are in a serious time of waiting right now. They know that God has amazing things in store for them--dreams and promises just waiting to be fulfilled, but in the meantime, they are just being faithful. They are living from hope injection to hope injection. And in the meantime (while God is intervening), they are waiting on Him.
What if we use those words "wait on God" in two different contexts. While we wait on God, we wait on God. Serve Him, worship Him while we are waiting...

While I'm Waiting. (click for song)

Psalm 130:5 "I am waiting for the Lord. My soul is waiting for Him, and my hope is in His Word."
Psalm 40:1 "When I was waiting for the Lord, His heart was turned to me, and He gave ear to my cry."
Psalms 9:10 "And those who have knowledge of Your name will put their faith in You: because You, Lord have ever given Your help to those who are waiting for You."