We all go through times of waiting.

Perhaps all of our lives are spent waiting.

My waiting usually looks impatient and discontent.

My waiting usually is spent trying to arrive.

If all of our lives are supposed to be made sacred, how can this waiting become sacred? How can this waiting become beautiful?

If all of our lives are meant for God’s glory, how can we lean into this waiting instead of resisting and pulling back?

Henri Nouwen, a Dutch theologian, writes about waiting as an active kind of waiting.

He speaks of those at the beginning of the Gospels (Mary, Elizabeth, Zechariah, Simeon, Anna) as waiting with a sense of promise. A promise that allows them to wait. Nouwen says that the secret of waiting is the faith that something has already begun.

Active waiting means to be present fully to the moment, in the conviction that something is happening where you are and that you want to be present to it. ~ Waiting for God

It is a waiting that knows the waited-for thing has already begun.

Like planting a seed and waiting for it to emerge. Like seeing the plus sign on the pregnancy test and waiting to hold the baby in your arms.

It is a knowing that there are beautiful things happening in the darkness. It is a knowing that even though you cannot see, it is growing.

It is a giving up of control because none of us quite know what we are waiting for when God is involved.

Rather than waiting for a job or a baby or a spouse, we are waiting for whatever God chooses to give. We hold our expectations and dreams lightly, with cupped open hands, knowing that whatever comes is ultimately the best thing of all.

It is a giving up of control but it is a gift of surprise and adventure, of something even better than what you had imagined.

It is a waiting with eyes open and breath held in expectation. Expectation of beauty and excitement.

This is a waiting I can lean in to. A beautiful, sacred waiting that glorifies God.

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Art credit: Final photograph of crab apple blossoms by Kirk Sewell; all other photographs copyright Made Sacred 2021

edited from the archives, as I work on the release of my book, Beyond the Front Door, this week!