"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 NIV
I am not a patient person. I do not like to wait. When an idea grabs me, I want to take action immediately or blurt out the thought and words that have just come to mind. Sometimes, without placing a filter over them first.
So every day that I look out my front door and find this mama quail still sitting on her eggs, I want to say, "Could you just fly away for a few minutes so that I can take a picture of your eggs--before they hatch?"
Yes, I have seen the eggs. Just last week we counted all 13 of them with our friends as they were saying, "Good-bye" to us. But, I did not have my camera handy, and somehow my brain did not kick into gear that I should run and get my camera before Mama came back. I was just worried for Mama to come back.
Now, Mama is back and she is not budging. I should be happy. But I am impatient. I want to see those eggs now--for my own pleasure.
After a week of checking her nesting spot in our flower pot by the front door, it dawned on me. That quail is patient. She slides her eyes up to check me out and make sure I am not going to harm her babies. But her trust in the Lord's timing keeps her from flinching or flying away. I watch. Try to snap photos from an awkward position. While I am impatient, she is content to sit there, day after day, waiting upon the Lord for those little ones to hatch.
I have a lot to learn from Mama quail. When I want to run ahead of the Lord with my plans, my ideas, my thoughts, I need to be patient and wait on His timing, His plans, His ways. As my soul and flesh wait for Him, more than the watchmen or the quails, I will experience His full redemption, unfailing love, and the fruit that comes from waiting on Him.
While waiting on Mama quail in the front yard, my oldest son snapped a photo of a quail family scurrying across our backyard into the rosemary bush to hide. Isn't the Lord good to give us a taste of what we'll soon see from patient Mama quail in the front yard?
From My Heart to Yours,
Linking with Spiritual Sundays
and
Scripture and a Snapshot
