My favorite verse in the Bible, for as long as I can remember, has been from Isaiah.  “They that wait on the Lord find new strength.  They will rise on wings like eagles, they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not faint.”

 

Wait.  The Hebrew word is qavah.  When you say it, it feels like a spring ready to explode, a building intensity.  The translation is something of an eager longing, a dedicated expectation and hope.  “But who hopes for what they already have?”  Something is missing, and that something is the target of this focused intensity.

 

Waiting is, by definition, hard.  It’s tiring.  It makes you weary.

 

But waiting for Him?  “See, I make all things new.”  New strength, new resolve, newness.  Like fresh water from a desert spring.  Cold, from the depths of the earth.  Like new wood on an ebbing coal, fire leaps into the cold night air.  Heat and light illuminating your darkness.

 

If you qavah for Him.

 

There are so many distractions.  So many other things I want.  “The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want.”  But still I want.  Is it so bad to want?  Only good things.  I want my son home, I want to eat well, work hard, travel, and play hard.  I want to be healthy.  I want peace.  I want to make a difference.

 

But I’m tired.  What if I fail?  What if I don’t get what I want?  What if I’m not good enough, because when I run I do get weary.

 

“Seek first His kingdom and righteousness, and all these things will be added to you as well.”

 

If you qavah for Him.

 

What is it for you? A dream, a promise, a relationship? What are you waiting hard for? Is it Him?

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Our adoption has taken two long years, and still we wait.  But the waiting is peaceful because we wait with, and for, Christ.  Because our son, Immanuel, is more than just a child we really really REALLY want to hug.  He is a promise from God.  Let me trace it back.

 

Our decision to adopt is not rooted in a desire to do good or be oh-so-Christian.  It’s a wonderful benefit to be able to snatch a child from family-less poverty and provide a home for him.  But “if I give all I have to the poor and have not love I am nothing.”  Read that again: to help the poor may be loving, but it is not love.  We must look to the One who IS love. 

 

Getting to know Him is life’s great adventure, and we know Him by His Word.  As John reminds us, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God and the Word was God.”  Then the impossible happened: the Word became flesh and dwelt among us.  He, the Word, is the root of our heart for adoption.  He made himself known to us in small ways, in whispered promises.  “You’ll be a father to many nations.”  “I want you to take care of Ethiopian orphans.”  “I will be with you.”  “I will provide.”  “Immanuel.”

 

These promises, I now see, were never about us.  Not about revealing His will for our lives, as we so often seek with desperation.  (As if we need to know so we can put our stamp of approval on it or something.)  It was always about Him.  When you love someone you share your heart with them.  Out of Fatherly love He was sharing His heart for adoption with us.  What is He speaking to you about?  He's showing you His heart.

 

So for us, waiting is not weary.  We gain new strength every day, because to wait for our son to come home is, for us, to wait on God's word.  It is to wait on Christ Himself.  We qavah for Him to show His character, His faithfulness, His heart for adoption.  "He places the orphans in families."

 

In the midst of that kind of waiting, waiting naturally turns to prayer.  What if all of our prayers were qavah - to wait, look for, hope, expect, to wait or look eagerly for, to lie in wait for, to collect, bind together (Strongs).  What if all our prayers were "according to the Word of God, on the basis of promises," (Bonhoeffer).  How naturally faith would surge in our hearts if that were so.

 

Waiting hard is praying hard.  What are you waiting hard for?

 

More: Click here to read about the status of our adoption and how to see pictures of our future son!