29. Timing is Everything

As children growing up in Zimbabwe, my brother and I used to keep silkworms and, each year in summer, we watched the process of metamorphosis take place with great fascination. We would keep the eggs that last year’s moths had laid in a cardboard shoe box and, when it was ‘silkworm season’, the first thing we would do when we got home from school every day was go and check if any of the eggs had hatched.

Oh, the joy when we saw tiny black specks moving around the box! Thankfully, we had a mulberry tree in our garden, so we had a plentiful supply of mulberry leaves which we stuffed inside the box and, each day, we would see the little specks grow and start to take form. We couldn’t believe how many mulberry leaves one small caterpillar could eat! They ate non-stop, hardly even pausing to rest, until they had grown large and plump.

The most mesmerising part of the process was when the caterpillars started spinning a golden cocoon around their fat white bodies. That usually took at least twenty-four hours and then, when the cocoon was thick enough that we couldn’t see through the fibres to the caterpillar within, the waiting began.

Watching the caterpillar grow from a tiny speck of an egg into a large, plump caterpillar and then spinning it’s cocoon was enthralling, but waiting for the metamorphosis to take place was not! However, we soon learned that the very time when nothing seemed to be happening, when the caterpillar was in the chrysalis or cocoon, was the most miraculous time of all. On the outside, nothing was happening. But during that place of rest and stillness, a miracle was taking place, unseen by the human eye.

Research has shown that a caterpillar will usually stay inside its chrysalis for between 5 and 21 days before it emerges as a butterfly (or a moth, with silkworms). However, in harsh environments like deserts, some can stay in their chrysalis for up to 3 years, just waiting for rain or for the right environment for them to emerge, feed and lay their eggs. Successful transformation can only take place under the right conditions and at the right time.

The same principle can be applied to the various seasons in our lives. Timing is everything. It’s absolutely vital that we learn to wait for the right time for change to take place; we must learn to wait well and not try to make things happen or hurry a process that simply cannot be hurried.

Jesus’s disciples had to wait. They were told, in Acts 1:4, “not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for the Promise of the Father…” Can you imagine what that must have been like for them? The promise of the Father … how exciting! How remarkable! But what promise? What were they waiting for?

They must have gone over and over every word that Jesus had said to them, in their minds, trying to figure out what the ‘promise’ was. They waited. Prayed. Waited some more. Talked, worshipped, prayed some more. Ate a meal together, discussed the scriptures. Waited some more. Talked about what Jesus had said to them, trying to figure out what the promise was. Waited some more. Prayed. Waited. Worshipped. Waited. Waited. And then He came!

Oh my goodness, was that promise not worth waiting for!? The outpouring of Holy Spirit upon God’s own people was the most remarkable fulfilment of the promise He had made, and it was SO worth the wait. It’s always worth the wait when you’re waiting on God.

Always.

We all have the capacity to wait, because we all have to wait at various times throughout our lives. But having to wait is not really the issue: HOW we wait is the issue. We can either become frustrated, angry, bored or resentful because things aren’t falling into place when and how we think they should, or we can wait well, by learning how to trust Him in the waiting, pressing into Him and focusing on the Giver, not just on the gift which we hope to find at the end of the waiting.

There is a big difference in waiting FOR someone and waiting ON them. Waiting FOR someone has a passive, laid back sort of feel to it. It conjures up the image of a person lounging on a sofa, or hanging around, just waiting for someone to arrive and ‘do their thing’. There is very little sense of personal engagement or responsibility because everything depends on the person who they’re waiting for.

Waiting ON someone is entirely different. It has an air of expectancy and alertness. The person waiting is not lethargic or passive, they are actively waiting on someone, ready to leap into action when the person comes. For instance, I think of Carson, Lord Crawley’s faithful butler in the series Downton Abbey. He waits on Lord Crawley as he sits at the dining table eating a meal. Carson doesn’t stare at him while he eats and it may look like he is disengaged, but he is not! He is alert and attentive, and the slightest raise of an eyebrow or motion of Lord Crawley’s hand and he is there at his side, saying ‘Yes, my Lord?’

It’s relatively easy to wait for someone or something to happen, and we all have to do it from time to time. But I believe Father wants to teach us how to wait ON Him so, next time, we’ll see what that could look like.

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Until next time ….

Read these scriptures over and over until they are a part of your being. Put them on your phone, stick them on your fridge and in your car! Meditate on them and ask Holy Spirit to reveal truth and speak to you specifically about your situation and life through them.

Psalm 27:14 

“Wait on the Lord; be of good courage, and He shall strengthen your heart; wait, I say, on the Lord!” (NKJV)

Isaiah 40:31

“But those who wait on the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint.” (NKJV)

Nicky Heymans is an author of historical fiction who is known for drawing fresh life and inspiration out of familiar Bible stories. She would love to hear from you! Please feel free to share your thoughts or ask questions by scrolling down to the bottom of this page and clicking on the 'contact' link, and she will get back to you.