"I'm late, I'm late ..."

"for a very important date ... "

Do you ever imagine God somewhat like that white rabbit from Alice in Wonderland, scurrying all over the world, going from one disaster to the next, from one heartbreak to the next crisis???  All the while chanting, "I'm late, I'm late ..."  I confess, I do sometimes ... and sometimes it just feels like He missed it ... that He was too late getting somewhere really IMPORTANT!!!

I have felt that way this morning as I prayed for a dear friend who is celebrating God's restoration of her marriage while grieving the news that her Dad's "nasty little disease" is not responding to his bone marrow transplant or chemo ... and then contemplating with her sister that her five year old nephew now needs brain surgery.  I'll admit ... seems like God is a little late getting to that party ... I mean, really ... what a sweet, godly, wonderful family ... how much does He think they can handle??  Isn't it time for Him to sweep down and save the day???  I mean ... like about 2 months ago???

I was reading in my Patriarch study this morning about Joseph.  He was doing quite a bit of waiting himself.  Seems to be such a pattern in scripture (hmmmm ... not just us, huh?)  He had this dream that his brothers would bow to him ... pretty sure that's NOT what happened when they dumped him in a pit and later sold him as a slave, telling his father he was dead.  No one came looking for him.  And then, to be accused by Potifer's hussy of a wife and thrown in jail ... unjustly.  And then, the cupbearer gets released as Joseph predicted and his hope builds yet again ... and yet, two more years pass before Joseph is summoned from his captivity.  TWO stinkin' years ... gah ...

In the study, Beth quotes Jeanette Cliff George as saying "God is never late, but He misses a few good opportunities to be early."  No doubt Joseph would agree with that ... I think I do as well.  Now, God, in His sovereignty could have kept Joseph out of jail all together ... He could have also let the cupbearer remember Joseph ... or at least jogged his memory by giving Pharaoh his dreams sooner than two years later.  But, He didn't.  I believe that God is never late.  I do.  But sometimes in my heart I wonder ... what about you???

A verse in Proverbs dear to my heart says,
Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but a longing fulfilled is a tree of life. (13:20).  It is hard to be in the waiting game ... but oh, how much sweeter the blessing of that longing when it is fulfilled ... and how much more likely are we to credit God when it happens.

So, today, I am trusting the God who is true to His word to be right on time ... and praying for my sweet friend, E, and her family that they would know this in the depths of their being.