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I first heard this saying when I was a child, and reminded of it in a twelve step meeting. I had to think about it for a while, and realized that it is, indeed, the case, and for good reason. How often do we wish for something to happen, and we rush, make mistakes, and ruin what we've been waiting for? When women are so tired of being pregnant, and carrying a human being inside, and their due date is passing by, they try all the old wives tales, and some documented ones as well, to make that baby come out! It will happen in God's time, not ours. Sure enough, we find that out.
This is usually most prevalent when we are waiting for something important or exciting to happen. Sometimes, it is sadness that brings us to say those words, when someone is suffering and dying, and everyone wants them to leave this life and move on to where they will no longer feel pain. We have no control over life or death, they will happen in God's time, not ours.
My mother suffered in a hospital bed with cancer for three months. Every day, the doctors would tell the family that she wouldn't make it through the night, and every morning, she was still alive. They also told us that she had enough morphine in her to kill a horse, with the pain she was in, and she would not be coherent when we went in to visit, and yet, I'd go in, and she'd start asking me about my kids, and how they were doing. Finally, I told her it was okay for her to go, she was holding on for her children, and I assured her we would be alright. She passed away the next evening, in God's time, not ours, or the doctors', or even hers'.
It was similar with my father. He was always a very vibrant, on the go person, he could never sit still for too long, except if there were some sport on TV. He developed a lung infection, and was in a nursing home at 78. He had absolutely no quality to his life. It was like being in the hospital. Routines of breakfast, baths, lunch, TV, dinner, visitors, TV, and bed. This was not the way my father had lived his life and it wasn't how he wanted to end it. However, it wasn't up to him, or his doctors, or his family, who didn't want him to suffer needlessly. The last time I went to see him, I had to help him from the chair back to his bed, and I said to him, "You know dad, you don't have to keep doing this if you don't want. You can go with mommy." He passed away very shortly thereafter. It wasn't in my time, his time, my siblings time, the doctors' time, no, it was in God's time.
How often do we have family pets that we've enjoyed for years, and they start to fail. If they're not in any pain, we hold onto them as long as we can. We may think we are adding to their lives, but only God knows when they are ready to be taken from us. When a big tree starts to die, our favorite tree we've watched grow for over twenty years, a tree where the kids attached a swing and had hours of fun, we try to buy whatever chemical that might save it for our sakes.
Nonetheless, that big old tree will die in God's time, not ours. think of all the many babies born with abnormalities or enlarged hearts, or downs syndrome, and the parents are told these babies won't live past two years old, and they live to be in their twenties, and longer. Only God can say when He is ready to bring His babies home.
We may be waiting for a circumstance to happen that has taken way longer than we anticipated. It may be very stressful to us, and we just want it to end. We pray for a resolution. We wait. We worry. We get frustrated. We get angry. It may be important for us to go through those emotions and feelings, but it won't make the event happen any sooner. It will happen in God's time, not ours. Sometimes, that makes it easier to deal with our circumstances, knowing that God is at the helm, and not us. We tend to make a few more mistakes! If we truly incorporate this line of thinking into our lives, it will make more sense to us when things aren't happening as fast as we would like. And when things make more sense, it seems we can handle them more smoothly.
As human beings, God's children, how can we reasonably think that we know more than our Father? We might not like the delays, or the results, but God knows better than us what He's doing. Wisdom comes from knowledge, and if we know something, we are responsible for it. If we know things happen in God's time, not ours, then why are we worrying about the job interview we went on last week, or when the builder's will be done with our home, or how we'll get through the next six months until we get our license? Patience is the key, and trust is a must! We must trust in the God of our understanding, and even if we don't like how our lives are going at the moment, that trust should see us through.
It's hard, in physical form, to think on a higher plane, but we aren't meant to yet, so why try? Instead, we know that our God loves us, and wants us to be happy and free of any burdens. If we do good on this Earth, good will come back to us. Our timing may just be a little off from God's. He is all knowing, all powerful, and full of love, so why do we doubt his timing? I don't doubt it. I know the reasoning, I've believed in everything happening in God's time since I was a child. It never makes it comfortable waiting for test results, a marriage date, a divorce, a birth, a house being built, or a death. Waiting is never easy for most of us. When we have known all our lives, that God works in His way, and in His time, and always to our advantage, we can at least have a lifeboat to hang on to until our negative situations pass.
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