Delay

Delay. Airport overflowing. Passengers waiting. Watching. Anxious. Resigned. Complaining. Shouting. 

Weary mom holds one child and corrals the others. Trying to get home before snow.

Couple returning from vacation. Using up all that relaxation in one day of flight cancellations. 

I sit beside a man from Newark. Started his day long before dawn. Now it’s late afternoon and his flight diverted from Pensacola to this small airport in Alabama. 

He’s trying to find another way to reach his destination. But rental cars are long gone. 

Messiah

The people of Israel waited. 

Watching. Anxious. Resigned. Crying out. Wondering when Messiah would come.

It felt like delay in places of heartache and exile. When darkness of their own sin yielded repercussions. 

They turned away from true worship,  hanging on to idols. Stone and wood carvings replacing the Lord God Almighty.

Later, lifting their eyes to again seek Him, they asked. When is Messiah coming? Never imagining His perfect timing would involve the birth of a helpless baby in an obscure setting. 

With common shepherds His first witnesses.

Feels like delay

We wait too. Watching at the window. Longing for Your return.

And it feels like delay in a world gone wrong. Where we slog through the darkening atmosphere. Tides of pain and illness, corruption and deception rising all around.

We pray. But tyrants unleash terror. Deceivers speak bold-faced lies. The lost wander, seemingly content in their state of separation from God.

And we ask for Your coming. 

Waiting. Sometimes impatiently. Anxious for all to be made right.

Teach us

Teach us to wait. 

Our “delay” is Your work continuing where we cannot see. Moving, when we think all is stopped and stagnant. 

You carry out Your Word according to Your plan. Perfectly timed.

Teach us to wait. Keeping our eyes on Jesus Christ. The First and the Last. The Living One who holds the keys of death and Hades. The Judge who is coming.

Someday there will be no flight delays or cancellations. No more waiting.

Our King will return. 

Come, Lord Jesus.

What about you?

Do you get tired of delays? How do you keep your eyes on Jesus in the waiting?

Related

Arrivals and departures – Waiting for the Lord – Someday – Beauty of timing – Walking, we wait – Waiting, we worship – Revelation 1:17-18 – 2 Timothy 4:1 –