This morning Esther and I waited an inordinate amount of time for the birds in our garden to come for their breakfast. We had given them lots of treats : left over jam on toast and some clean water to play in.
We then sat and waited. Then we waited some more.
Esther did some washing up, ate most of a biscuit and then came back to wait for the birds.
Then they came; a robin, two blackbirds (one male and one female) an obese pigeon, a blue tit and a sweet little wagtail.
But they did not all come at once. And they didn’t stay very long – (partly because Esther was very keen on welcoming them with a loud tap of her digestive biscuit on my newly cleaned patio door shouting “Hello birdies! Come for your bath now!”) Enough to put even the hardiest of eagles of their weetabix.

This greeting, whilst being very well-meant, rather frightened them away. Poor Esther was glum. She needed cheering up. So we made the biggest cake imaginable instead.

Sometimes we wait a very long time for something and then it is not what we imagine. We can choose how we handle that. We can become disgruntled, disappointed and disaffected, or we can embrace the way things really are. And have fun along the way.
I have been waiting, for what seems like a bloomin’ long time, to find out what God is going to do (if anything) with my last album. Some of that waiting has been hard, some has been exciting and some has been downright painful.

I don’t want to wait in vain only to scare of what God has planned by some well-meant but thoroughly wrong greeting of the new season on my part.
So whilst my spiritual ‘birds’ wait for their feast, I am trying to wait well. I am trying not to be hopeless, but I am also trying not to pin my hopes on them arriving in any order, at any given time. Because there are things to do NOW. There are jobs to do, blogs to write, people to hug and cards to send. There are mountains to climb, babies to kiss, new songs to sing and people to love.
If I wait for “stuff” to happen, I am not truly waiting on God. My focus is on the stuff and not the saviour.

God, forgive us for waiting so hard that we don’t enjoy each day.
Forgive us for times that we focus so much on what You may be ABOUT to do that we forget what You ARE doing. Most of all, help us, when the time comes, not to shout and tap our biscuits too hard on the window of Your opportunity.
We don’t want to miss anything Father. So teach us how to do waiting well.
Amen