Psalm 27:14  Wait for the LORD; be strong and take heart and wait for the LORD.

Have you noticed how God just loves to use the experience of ‘waiting’ in our lives?  We have such a tendency to expect things to happen a whole lot sooner than they do.  When we encounter delays, we typically discover that patience isn’t one of our stronger suits.  We want the Lord to give us patience now!

Some years ago when we were living in NE Ohio, we believe the Lord called us to move to Colorado Springs.  We put our house on the market.  Twenty-eight months later (January of 2005) the house still hadn’t sold.  To say we didn’t understand the delay is a bit of an understatement!  At that time we had a 10 year old blond cocker spaniel name Rascal and we knew he wouldn’t be making the move with us.  I wish I had $10 for every time we
read something or were told that we were never going to find a home for him.  People just didn’t want old dogs – particularly 10 year old dogs.

That month we took a trip to Brazil to visit our son and his family. The kennel we had used for nearly 20 years wasn’t available so we found another on the opposite side of the Akron area.  When I dropped Rascal off, I told them of our need for a home for him.  Upon our return we discovered that the groomer there had told her pastor about Rascal.  The pastor had a 10 year old female blond cocker named Josephine and they had been to visit Rascal several times while we were in Brazil.  Rascal had a new home!

Two weeks later, I was really struggling over the delay in selling our house and just not understanding what was going on.  My hope had taken some severe hits by the wait.  In the midst of crying out to the Lord, He answered so clearly with a thought out of the blue:
“It is more difficult to find a home for a 10 year old rascal of a dog than it is to sell a reasonably priced house with a great real estate firm!”

It’s amazing how God used that thought to calm the storm within me.  Everything was in His hands.  Providing the home for Rascal was more than a kindness to us.  He used it to help us trust Him and recognize that in His time everything would fall into place.  The delay had to do with His timing and provided us with an opportunity to grow in faith and trust in God.

PS – The house sold 1 month later.