Part of our regular weekly rhythm is a trip to the Shore, to visit with my Grandma. Even in the middle of chaos and frustration, we have been blessed with this place of peace and steadiness. During the summer months there is a little boat that is anchored there, so close to the beach that when the tide goes out, it is sitting on dry(ish) land. Usually by the time we leave in the evening the tide has come in again, and the boat is back in the water where it belongs. Usually, but not always.
Stuck on a slightly higher section of the beach with the water all around it, this particular evening the boat remained stranded. Looking at the scene, I felt a sort of kinship. It's so close, but there is absolutely nothing it can do to hurry the process along. The tide will come. The boat will just have to wait.
I imagine that must have been a familiar feeling for many in the Bible. Abraham and Sarah as they waited for God's promised child. David, on the run from Saul before he was officially made King. The Israelites in exile, anticipating their return to the Promised Land. Mary watching her son hanging on a cross, knowing that there had to be more to this story, even as he drew his last breath.
The tension of holding the hope of what is coming in the face of the current reality.
The Psalms are filled with the pain and exaltation of this in-between. Of knowing God is good and has a plan, but also knowing that His timing is not ours and Right Now kind of sucks. It's a hard thing to do, and something I often struggle to remind myself of. What God has promised, He will accomplish. I can count on it, like the ebb and flow of the tide every day. Sometimes I will see the fruit of His work quickly, sometimes I will be stuck on a rock a little longer.
If you resonate with this feeling of stuckness, if you are standing on the edge, waiting for the tide to turn and lift you again, may I encourage your heart? Things are shifting, good things are coming. There is nothing you can do to hurry things along, and there is nothing you need to do but hold fast to the hope of what He is doing. In His time, God will come through.
Eventually, the boat will return to the water.
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