Waiting

Lucy, our Golden Retriever, loves to watch out our livingroom window at the goings-on outside when she cannot go out to explore it all. We can all relate at sometime or another to this waiting; waiting and watching for a loved one to come home, waiting for a baby to arrive, waiting for a phone call or an answer to prayer...we wait and we wonder why the wait seems to take so long.
A few years ago, I came upon this wonderful little book, a poem actually, written by Russell Kelfer. The description of this book is found on the back, as follows:
Every once in a while, a rare poetic treasure emerges and speaks to us in a profound and meaningful way...the kind of piece you keep close by to share its gentle wisdom. For more than 20 years, Russell Kelfer's inspirational poem, Wait, has ministered to countless individuals, yet the author's identity was always unknown until now. Russell Kelfer speaks to our human desire to hear God's plan for our life and our subsequent frustration when we feel we are met with His silence. What we often hear as God's "no", however, is God's "wait". "Wait...for My timing. Wait for Me to work in you. Wait while you learn to trust Me."
This wonderful poem has circulated the Internet, with the author listed as "unknown". But Marianne Richmond found the poem and contacted the late Mr. Kelfer's wife, Martha Williams Kelfer, for permission to create this "poetic treasure". It is a short, simple message that shares the heart of God, and how, when He asks us to wait, we in turn come to know Him so much better, so much sweeter, even in our times of pain and sorrow.
So, Dear Readers, if you are waiting for an answer to prayer, take a moment to read this poem, and if you know someone who is waiting, share this poem and this lovely book with them. You will be blessed and so will God.

Wait
by Russell Kelfer

Desperately, helplessly, longingly, I cried;
Quietly, patiently, lovingly, God replied.
I pled and I wept for a clue to my fate . . .
And the Master so gently said, "Wait."

"Wait? you say wait?" my indignant reply.
"Lord, I need answers, I need to know why!
Is your hand shortened? Or have you not heard?
By faith I have asked, and I'm claiming your Word.

"My future and all to which I relate
Hangs in the balance, and you tell me to wait?
I'm needing a 'yes', a go-ahead sign,
Or even a 'no' to which I can resign.

"You promised, dear Lord, that if we believe,
We need but to ask, and we shall receive.
And Lord I've been asking, and this is my cry:
I'm weary of asking! I need a reply."

Then quietly, softly, I learned of my fate,
As my Master replied again, "Wait."
So I slumped in my chair, defeated and taut,
And grumbled to God, "So, I'm waiting for what?"

He seemed then to kneel, and His eyes met with mine . . .
and He tenderly said, "I could give you a sign.
I could shake the heavens and darken the sun.
I could raise the dead and cause mountains to run.

"I could give all you seek and pleased you would be.
You'd have what you want, but you wouldn't know Me.
You'd not know the depth of my love for each saint.
You'd not know the power that I give to the faint.

"You'd not learn to see through clouds of despair;
You'd not learn to trust just by knowing I'm there.
You'd not know the joy of resting in Me
When darkness and silence are all you can see.

"You'd never experience the fullness of love
When the peace of My spirit descends like a dove.
You would know that I give, and I save, for a start,
But you'd not know the depth of the beat of My heart.

"The glow of my comfort late into the night,
The faith that I give when you walk without sight.
The depth that's beyond getting just what you ask
From an infinite God who makes what you have last.

"You'd never know, should your pain quickly flee,
What it means that My grace is sufficient for thee.
Yes, your dearest dreams overnight would come true,
But, oh, the loss, if you missed what I'm doing in you.

"So, be silent, my child, and in time you will see
That the greatest of gifts is to truly know me.
And though oft My answers seem terribly late,
My most precious answer of all is still . . . Wait."

© 1980 Russell Kelfer. All rights reserved.