Knowing When to Wait

“O tarry and await the Lord’s pleasure...wait patiently for the Lord.”

I just finished typing up the weekend’s announcements. In the section reserved for UPCOMING events, it makes me happy to turn on the BOLD and RED formatting to list the services of Holy Week. I know that it is nine days away (who’s counting?). And I also am happy to list the Easter Vigil--the most mysterious and moving service of the year, when we drag ourselves sorrowfully to the dark, cold tomb with the Myrrh-bearing Women and the Apostles--only to be greeted by an explosion of light, sound and joy. Vigil is 16 days away, after the somber notes of Tenebrae, after the desolation and anguish of Good Friday, after the echoing emptiness of Holy Saturday.

Seems like a long time from today. We will traverse spiritual and emotional universes between now and then. I am usually tempted to jump to Easter and the shouts of the beloved A-word. Not so much this year. It seems to me that it is the waiting which makes the sacred Days so full of awe, and the release from the burden of death and sin so over-the-top freeing. It is like knowing that if you wait one more day to eat the temptingly delicious looking pear it will be fragrant and sweet in a way that it would not be today.

But if I wait too long, Ietting my focused attention stray, I could miss the wonder of Easter and the lusciousness of the pear. Perhaps I am beginning to learn how and when to wait. But patiently? That still needs praying for.

--Laura Howell