Tomorrow our sixth child is due. He has not been born yet and we are eagerly awaiting his arrival. Waiting is hard. It feels like I will be pregnant forever, even though I know he has to come sometime. I have never liked waiting. I don’t know many people who do. I got a little better at waiting through our two adoption processes. Adoption is all about waiting, so I got better at it, but I still don’t like it. What I have learned is that God has a time for everything, including the birth of our son. I am content to wait until the day God has planned for his birth, after all I know I can’t do anything to make that day happen any sooner anyway.

It reminds me of the Bible story of Sarah and Abraham. They were really old, like about 80 years old, and they had no children. It was a big deal to have no children in those days. People thought God had cursed them if they couldn’t have children. God came and told Abraham that he would have a son. He was thrilled. Then 10 years went by and still no child. Abraham and Sarah grew impatient and decided to run ahead of God and make this dream happen. Sarah told Abraham to sleep with her maid and the maid got pregnant and had a son. I personally don’t know why Sarah didn’t see that this would not have a good end, but she was so desperate for Abraham and have a son that she decided this was the only way. It turned out to be a disaster. Sarah was jealous of her maid and her son, of course. So jealous she forced Abraham to send them away. Finally, after 10 more years God decided to fulfill his promise, and Sarah and Abraham had a son named Isaac. It took 20 years, give or take, for God to fulfill his promise of a child.

I can see why Abraham and Sarah got impatient. They were old, and 20 years is a long time to wait on God. But they could have saved themselves, and the whole world, a lot of heartache if they had obeyed God and not tried to get things done on their own. Abraham’s two sons fought their whole lives and their descendents are still fighting to this day. Waiting on God is hard, but not waiting on God can be a disaster. So, I will be content to wait for the day that our son is born, whenever that is, and try not to be impatient thinking I know the best time for him to be born. Two weeks from now, that might not be so easy to say, but for now I am content to wait.