On Waiting.......

This morning, swinging on the Creek Road porch, looking at the tree my daddy planted over 50 years ago, my Chan asked me a question. 

"Nanny, have you heard about that tree that you can plant in the ground and the first year you plant it, it doesn't grow? And then the second year it doesn't grow either. Not the third year or the fourth or even the fifth. And then in the sixth year it starts growing and it grows and grows after that into a big beautiful tree. Have you heard about that?"

"No, I don't believe that I have, Chan. But it reminds me of something that happened here on this porch about nine years ago. It was April and I was sitting in the swing waiting to see a hummingbird. I had put my feeder out and hoped it wouldn't be long before they found it. I would sit and watch and I know this sounds silly, but I would ask God to please let this be the day I see one. You see my daddy, your great granddaddy, loved hummingbirds. He was in nursing home, had been sick a long time with a disease that makes him forget everything and I didn't know how to help him.  I don't know why I was so desperate to see the hummingbird, I guess it just would have reminded me of when he was himself and would sit for hours watching these fascinating little birds. I know that they brought him joy. 

Well I watched and watched and prayed and prayed and nothing. Most everyone else I knew who fed the hummers had already seen them at their feeders. I just couldn't understand it. Day by day went by with no sightings. Well about two months later, on June the 8th, your grandaddy went to live with Jesus. I was very sad, but relieved too that he was finally himself again, with no pain, and with a complete mind. The day after he left here, I was on my porch crying a little. You do that when someone you love a whole lot dies. I stared at the hummingbird feeder and was feeling kind of sad and mad at the same time. I hadn't asked God for much. Just to let me see one little hummingbird. I had been watching and asking for two months now. And not one came.

I didn't think I was really seeing it at first. It fluttered at the feeder for a few seconds and then flew right up to the screen where I was sitting and looked at me, it's emerald wings fluttering swiftly. My breath caught in my chest. It had a red throat and was the prettiest hummingbird I had ever seen. It stayed suspended in front of me for just a bit and then flew back to the feeder, drank for a few seconds, and then flew away. I think I was still holding my breath when I realized what had just taken place. God had sent me the hummingbird at just the right time to let me know that my daddy was ok."

I told Chan that I'll bet that most people would have gotten tired and given up while waiting for that tree. Maybe they would have been ok with it not growing in the second year, even the third. They would have said, "ok, I'm gonna give it another year." But then by the fourth and fifth years, they would give up. They would say, "this tree is never going to grow. It's been five years now! I'm just going to dig it up and forget it." But they never get the time to dig it up and they forget about watching for it to grow. And then... then in the sixth year, they look at that tree and it is bigger and fuller. They watch and see it grow and grow and they can't believe that it is finally happening. 

God didn't send the hummingbird when I asked Him to. 

I didn't understand.

I thought He didn't hear me.

I thought He didn't care. 

I was tired of waiting.

I almost gave up.

It was when I was at my saddest, with the most questions, when He finally sent it.

And I believed.

If He had sent it when I asked, I may not have believed it was Him. 

His timing is always perfect.

His ways are higher than ours.

He wants us to trust Him with all of our hearts.

 

It may not always look like we expect it to but....

Just wait.

The tree will grow.

The hummingbirds will come. 

He has made a promise.

In His timing.