The Day He Celebrated You

“…But you have kept the best until now!” John 2:10 NLT

Be careful what you wish for (pray for). Because for all you know, God is taking you at your word.

Reading the blog about Rapunzel led to this entry. I have posted that more than a year ago and I firmly believed in that message. I believe it still. There’s glory in waiting.

But the wait, as far as I am concerned, is now over.

Because finally, my prince has come and has summoned me from my tower.

He came in the time when I was not looking. I was done with the look-out route, and I just wanted to wait on God.

He came in a time when my pain was almost unbearable—the price I had to pay for seeking to do things my own way.

He came in a time when love was the last thing on my mind.

I was not ready for him. But God was. He came in the form of a friend. He was not looking either and we shared the aversion to love for that season. And for some grand plan, we both found God—not each other—in the midst of our individual pain. Friendship was forged and God was the agenda.

Little did we know that God is setting us up for something more. We were not aware that love bloomed, like a growing consciousness, in the passage of time. It’s amazing to look back and realize that the man I have been praying for is just before my very eyes and I failed to see it the entire time! I failed to see the signs that my very request for love to bloom out of a beautiful friendship is being answered every single day.

And here we are, almost four years after, becoming more than we hope for and beyond what we prayed for.

I am thankful that the Rapunzel my prince found was not wantonly waiting. He found her in the prime of her life, living it to the fullest for God.

How I thank God for the grace and patience to wait—now that all mysteries have been unveiled. And I thank Him more because the journey that led him to me was worth its toil. It was a fruitful walk—one that is as glorious as finally having him. I never regret having waited so long.  It makes the bliss of his arrival even much sweeter and meaningful. It makes me stand in awe in all gratefulness that he is a gift, from the One who loves me in all the world combined. It is the first and the last chapter of a lifetime, from the God who wrote my most favorite novel: our love story.

Ladies, trust me. It’s worth the wait.

“Perhaps, after all, romance did not come into one’s life with pomp and blare, like a gay knight riding down; perhaps it crept to one’s side like an old friend through quiet ways; perhaps it revealed itself in seeming prose, until some sudden shaft of illumination flung athwart its pages betrayed the rhythm and the music, perhaps . . . perhaps . . . love unfolded naturally out of a beautiful friendship, as a golden-hearted rose slipping from its green sheath.”

–Lucy Maud Montgomery in Anne of Avonlea.

“For you are my hiding place…” Psalm 32:7 NLT

Most of the time when we encounter unbearable moments of grief, we think, where is God when it hurts? But I realize we ask the wrong question. The right question should be where are you when you are hurting? It may seem a silly question. But please hear me out.

God is not distant when your troubles come. In fact, in one Bible passage it says, beneath are the everlasting arms. You are exactly where you should be—in God the Father’s strong, secure, and able hands. You are wrapped in his arms. The only question is will you revel in the Father’s love and trust his ways, or are you gonna run amuck and seek refuge elsewhere?

I was in a constant state of uneasy flux lately and I felt I couldn’t get rid of it. I constantly worry of many things: of my concerns. And I got reminded of a phrase I wrote in one of my bibles before. It says:

“The God who has set the stars in place each night is the same God who holds your life.”

The God who has created the universe is interested in your concerns. He is the refuge we can find from the storm. And when he holds you, nobody can snatch you from his grasp. He makes no mistakes.

Dare we question the wisdom of the Almighty? Let us be like Job and humble ourselves. Help is on the way. Security and shelter is already here. Rest your heart in his presence.

“Ask for anything you like, and make it as difficult as you want.” Isaiah 7:11

Have you ever tried asking God for something so grand, anybody (including you) would think it to be way out of your wildest dreams? Have you ever tried to ask him for something that would blow not just your socks, but your heels off? If you haven’t, then why?

If there is one word that definitely does not describe God, it would be this: moderate. Throughout the biblical accounts of what God did, I have never come across a passage that showed him doing something less than a jaw-droppping-eye-widening-dumbfounding manifestation of his power. Fire from the sky that consumed animal sacrifice and licked overflowing water from the surrounding overflowing trench—how cool is that? Yet one man knew how to ask God for something quite unbelievable. The prophet Elijah dared to ask and man, did he get what he asked for. He saw things beyond the natural, not because he was challenging God; He saw marvelous things happen before his eyes because he knew the God that he served. God shows his incomparable power not because he is challenged by his people’s requests; he does so because that’s his nature—an all-powerful God.

Has the truth of his nature sunk deep into your consciousness? The God of the universe is never intimidated by the size of your request. In fact, he is just waiting for you to ask for the impossible, because just like the term “moderate,” the word “impossible” is not in his vocabulary either.