Tracking God's Progress

This weekend I completed my Christmas shopping, and even finished wrapping all of my gifts--except for one. I'm awaiting the arrival of one more gift (thanks, Amazon!). Normally when I place orders online I can use the tracking number to chart the order's progress in transit. I can see when the order was shipped, which cities it will travel through, and when it will supposedly reach its destination.

Today, when I checked the status for this particular order, however, it only told me when it was supposed to have shipped. For some reason, there's no intinerary for this package, no record (online, anyway) of where the package is or if it's been delivered. Since I took this past Friday off from work, I'm hoping that the order will be waiting for me at the office tomorrow.

Sometimes I think it would be great if we could consult a website and find out the estimated time of arrival for certain blessings and promises from God. It would help calm our nerves and ease our fears if we could see that, indeed, God is going to send that unexpected insurance check on Tuesday, or that He's going to send that much-needed encouraging phone call on Friday, or that He's going to erase that cancer before we go back to the doctor next week.

But while we might think having a God-tracking system would be a good thing, God knows better. It's in times where we don't know when (not to mention how) God is going to come through for us that our faith is really built. When we can't conceive of what He has planned for us, when we think we can't endure one more minute in the fire, He alone knows what we need, and when we need it.

I wait for the Lord, my soul waits, and in his word I put my hope. My soul waits for the Lord more than watchmen wait for the morning, more than watchmen wait for the morning. (Psalm 130:5-6)