By Rae Lynn DeAngelis
“How much longer?” I groaned from the back seat.
“We’re almost there,” Mom reported cheerfully. “Only four more hours to go!”
Four more hours?! Our family’s first trip to Florida felt like a journey to nowhere. Would we ever get there?
Sitting in the car for 16 hours over the course of two days, sandwiched between my brother and sister, was brutal. We had run out of songs to sing and games to play long ago. And our fascination with the semi-truck drivers—trying to get them to honk their horns by pumping our fists up and down—had lost its charm. For the remaining hours, I was left with only my imagination and growing anticipation.
I had a good idea of what to expect since most of my friends had been there: beautiful sunshine, tall palm trees, a blue ocean with sandy beaches, and pretty seashells along the shore.
When we finally reached our beach house on stilts, it was everything I had dreamed of—and more. Not only were the beach and ocean directly across the street from our vacation home, but the Intracoastal Waterway and a fishing dock were right behind it. To a child who loved fishing, it felt like paradise.
As the saying goes, good things come to those who wait.
Fifty-plus years later, you might think I would have grasped that concept. And that now I’m a patient person. But no. I’m still going through “wait training.” I’m still learning lessons the hard way. I’m still being forged by God’s refining fires.
“This third I will put into the fire; I will refine them like silver and test them like gold” (Zechariah 13:9).
Over my lifetime, God has provided many opportunities to refine me like silver and test me like gold.
Standing in a slow-moving grocery line, sitting at the airport waiting for yet another delayed flight, and arriving at a doctor’s office on time only to learn the doctor is running an hour behind schedule are a few examples that test my patience.
Counting down the days until our wedding, spending an entire year searching for a house to buy, and going two weeks past my pregnancy due date were even more challenging tests of endurance.
Sometimes it feels like I go from one waiting test to another. Perhaps you can relate.
The good news is, everything I shared eventually came to pass.
Vacations were taken. Groceries were purchased. Planes were boarded and arrived safely at their destinations.
Homes were bought, and memories were made. Children arrived and transformed our lives. And more than forty years later, my husband and I are still together.
Indeed, good things really do come to those who wait.
However, some of God’s greatest promises require a different kind of waiting. We wait not just days, months, or years—but sometimes generations. I’m still waiting for things like world peace. Jesus’ return. God’s healing. Evil removed. Justice served.
Will these take place in my lifetime?
“For the revelation awaits an appointed time; it speaks of the end and will not prove false. Though it linger, wait for it; it will certainly come and will not delay” (Habakkuk 2:3).
No matter how big or small, long or short, fulfilled or unfulfilled, our waiting will never be wasted.
God is always working—even when we cannot see it. He uses each season of waiting as an opportunity to grow us, teach us, and strengthen our resolve. Through it all, He develops our character. We become more patient, understanding, and considerate of others. And best of all, we become clearer reflections of Jesus.
So, embrace the wait.
Allow God to use the fire, skim off the dross, and refine you into a clearer image of His Son.
It’s like building up muscle. The more we learn to wait now, the lighter our burdens will feel in the future.
“Wait for the Lord; be strong and take heart and wait for the Lord” (Psalm 27:14).
“We wait in hope for the Lord; he is our help and our shield” (Psalm 33:20).
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