A little girl delighted in helping her grandfather tend to his garden of many beautiful and rare species of flowers. Daily, he gave such attention to these flowers, and was accompanied by his granddaughter, whom he taught him to admire and enjoy the beauty of each blossom.
One of his favorite species of flowers was a particular rose that was still tightly held in the bud. The child and her grandfather waited patiently to see it in full bloom.
One morning, when the grandfather came into the garden to inspect the choice rose, he found it torn open with all the petals broken and laid back.
The grandfather, asking the little girl what had happened, received this reply: “I just couldn’t wait any longer, so I blossomed it myself.”
The child, in her impatience, tried to do something that only God can do, and that is to bring forth into full bloom the beauty of a completed rose.
How oft we all make the same mistake! In our immaturity and impatience, we try to do what only God can do, and that is to make a spiritual rose blossom before its time.
James, in his general epistle, writes to believers who were suffering under severe persecution. There is no doubt that they had grown impatient, questioning the work of God. They desired to be patient and wait on the Lord but had become weary in doing so.
James wrote: “But let patients have her perfect work, that you may be patient and entire, wanting nothing” (James 1:4).
Patience is nothing short of simply waiting on God. In our weariness from waiting, we tend to try and help God out. Using our muscle, money, influences, and abilities, we try and “blossom the rose” ourselves. However, when we do, like the child, we destroy what God has intended.
I think of the children of Israel. It was said by the psalmist: “They limited the Holy One of Israel.” How can any man limit God? Simply by getting in his way, by running ahead of him, or refusing to follow where he leads. If we would enjoy the beauty of all that God tries to do in our lives, we must learn to wait upon him. The psalmist also said: “Wait on the Lord; be of good courage, and he will strengthen your heart: wait, I say, on the Lord” (Psalm 27: 14).
Many times, we have heard it said: “God is slow, but he is never late.” So, let us wait on him, remembering that time spent waiting before God is time that is never wasted.
In his presence we will find strength to sustain us, and the result of our waiting will be an object of beauty far above our expectations, because it will be born out of God’s love for us, his children.
Jerry L. Dunn is pastor of Oak Street Baptist Church, Kingman.
