Today’s special edition post is from Tova Dad, my favorite daughter and Virtual Assistant. She lives outside of Amarillo with her husband and their two daughters.
In the words of my eldest daughter, “Waiting is hard.”
As her mom, I try to teach patience, but, lets be honest, she’s right.
Today was an unusual experience in waiting for me. I took my younger daughter to her first ballet class, and expected to spend the 40 minutes waiting with the other parents in the designated waiting space.
However, on the drive over to the studio, I recalled that her big sister was in need of a new lidded water bottle because the cap had recently broken.
I decided to use my waiting time to drive to a nearby gas station and pick up a new water bottle, then drive back to the studio and Febreeze the inside of my van and air it out so the smokey smell it acquired on our recent camping trip would stop making all of us sneeze.
Well, I quickly found the water bottle I wanted, and then found the end of the long line waiting to check out.
It was actually only 3 people in front of me, but there was only a single cashier and the first customer must have had some kind of difficulty because he was up there for quite a while.
I stood there thinking to myself, “Waiting is hard.”
Honestly, what I was really thinking was, “Where is the other cashier that should be in here helping out? I’m going to spend all of my free time standing in this line!”
Eventually, the line moved and I was able to get the new water bottle and drive back to the studio. But I just kept thinking, “What a waste of time!”
I parked, opened all the windows in the van and started Febreezing all of the smokey surfaces. But while working, I noticed the sound of a car sputtering and failing to start.
I looked across the parking lot and saw another mom in another van trying again and again to get her engine to turn over.
I continued with my task, but I felt a stirring in my heart. The thought that ran through my mind was, “You have jumper cables.”
That was it. No word of scripture came to mind. No parallels to ‘The Good Samaritan.’ Nothing. Just, “You have jumper cables.”
I thought against that with every introvert bone in my body, “I don’t remember how to USE them. I identify cars by their color, not their make and model. This is a job for someone else.”
There was no further argument that came to my heart. “You have jumper cables.” There was nothing else that needed to be said.
I finished airing the car, pulled up my big girl britches, and walked over.
“Do you need a jump?”
The look she gave me was a mixture of frustration, embarrassment, and hope.
“Yes, I do. Do you have jumper cables?”
The thud in my heart felt a little like an I-told-you-so.
“I do. But I haven’t had to use them in more than a decade. Maybe we can google it as we go.”
I got my van pulled up next to hers and my jumper cables out. They were even labeled with little tags in the order they should be attached to the batteries. Of course they were.
When the initial attempt of her starting her car didn’t work, we tried google. We had no signal. Of course we didn’t.
We looked and studied and thought some more and finally got the right pieces in the right places. Her car started and she headed for home after thanking me profusely.
I went into the studio to pick up my daughter, right on time, with a little spring in my step. ‘I jumped off another car! Me! The girl who handles nothing related to our vehicles! My husband is going to be so surprised.’
It wasn’t until I was walking out of the building with my daughter that the thought suddenly occurred to me: what would have happened if that gas station line hadn’t taken so long?
I might have been back in the studio waiting on my daughter, completely oblivious to the woman in the parking lot who would need a helping hand.
I pondered that on the drive home.
Waiting is hard.
But God can orchestrate waiting into an opportunity to be a blessing. To be his hands. To do as he would have done.
And being part of that is well worth the wait.
It’s amazing.
