While We Wait

Life can seem like a perpetual waiting game. As children we wait eagerly for birthdays, Christmas, the beginning of summer break. As teenagers and young adults we look forward to graduation, love, marriage, children. But once we are firmly planted in adulthood, waiting has lost it's shine. We allow the fact that our past anticipations didn't always pan out as expected to limit our excitement so we won't be hurt or disappointed.

In the Parable of the Bags of Gold (or Talents), Jesus tells a story of a master who goes away and divides his fortune among his servants with the expectation that they will use it well and increase the master's wealth. However the fortune was not divided evenly - it was divided according to the ability of each servant. The servants, then, proved their loyalty (or disloyalty):

16 The man who had received five bags of gold went at once and put his money to work and gained five bags more.17 So also, the one with two bags of gold gained two more. 18 But the man who had received one bag went off, dug a hole in the ground and hid his master’s money. (Matt. 25:16-18)

We are not told what exactly the two faithful servants did with the money they were given - only that they used it to make more. These servants understood that all they had been given was not theirs to keep, but theirs to use. They prepared as they waited for the return of their master by actively using the gifts they'd been given to honor their master. The unfaithful servant acted out of fear and hid what had been entrusted to him.

What if, instead of focusing on the things we're waiting for, we focused on the One who is eager to multiply our gifts and bless us abundantly even while we wait. Then we might hear:

21 “His master replied, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share your master’s happiness!’(Matt. 25:21)

May we wait in joyful anticipation of whatever God's going to do next!