Why Being in a Season of Waiting is Incredibly Important and Beautiful

This morning, the touch of sunlight accompanied by a slice of fresh peach from our tree is a beautiful and welcomed gift. At long last, the peaches are plump and ready. Our peaches are soft, picked and eaten, dripping with warmth. Yet as with anything that strives to resound in fullness and completion, whether peaches in bloom or performances on stage or any finished product, the process is often incredibly slow.

To enjoy each summer peach, preludes resound: Autumn, winter and spring pass before summer harvest and each depends on the other. A tree producing fruit is deeply intertwined with every rhythm of life; soaking energy from the sun, receiving water from the rain and resting under the soil in the bitter cold of winter, and finally, unfolding in the warmth of spring or summer.

While I have waited and striven toward many outcomes throughout life, I have often been too vigorous in my desire to obtain an outcome – to just get on with it, to finalise the project, to finally get married, to buy the house, to finally give birth to Ezekiel.

Do I depend on the slow process of growth purely and primarily to obtain the outcome, or do I enjoy the seasons of change and maturation? Do I depend on the rain to establish roots? Do I lap up sun when it comes and receive the cool darkness of evening?

When a peach fully ripens, it falls off the tree onto the ground; it surrenders, and within days is either deliciously enjoyed or left to decompose in the soil. How much more should I enjoy the process of growth, the tiny buds, the barren branches, the bitter winter winds and the rain which nourishes the roots?

Am I waiting on God, hopeful and excited, or am I rushing into the next moment, waiting to receive a gift? The gift unfolds now, as I wait and watch wind push through the boughs of the peach tree, and the sun shimmers light against the leaves. The beauty is here, too. But one day, the beauty will be and will always be. Heaven isn’t so far.

1 Corinthians 13:12 For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known.