Wait, Watch, Wonder

Helen Syski realizes we are never outside of God’s plan. 

My baby boy squirms on the changing table; as soon as I set him down, he beelines to the slide on his brother’s bunk bed. So long as his feet are bare, he has learned to climb the slide and delights in his ability to get up and look out on the world. Once climbing up was mastered, I knew it was time for him to learn to come down.   

Waiting, watching, wondering, I stepped back, no longer plucking him off the slide at the first sign he was done. What would he do? At first, he tried variations of plunging headlong off the side; my reflexes got some excellent sharpening. Other times he would cling to his spot and yell or sometimes his slipped foot would cause a backward slide. As I created more and more space, he began to think and learn from his experiments. Finally, one victorious morning, he spent forty-five minutes climbing up and sliding down feet first on his belly.  

Through it all I was there protecting him from injury, but the better coordinated he got, the less I tried to protect him from hurt — he needed to know what happens when a foot gets stuck, or he gets too close to the edge. I won’t always be there to catch him.  

In the beginning I was wondering when and how he would need help; now I was wondering at the delight and confidence radiating from his new skill and how quickly he taught himself.   

God waits, watches and wonders for us, too.  

When we have to step out from the known and learn a new spiritual lesson, God sets up the environment and then waits, watches and wonders. He is right there below us, ready to come to our aid when it benefits us, and ready to let us fail when it will teach us what we need to learn. 

Sometimes failing is in God’s plan.  

A mother of five in town had a baby and I wanted to bring her family a meal.  But I procrastinated, hemming and hawing over which day, what meal, and whether I really knew her well enough for it to not be awkward.   

I finally settled on chili and tentatively told her I’d be by. I drove up to the house and tiptoed up the snow-covered walk balancing my steaming trays. Their Christmas lights reflected on the snow and icicles as I raised my hand to knock.  

As her husband opened the door and light streamed out, it was clear this was not ordinary post-partum chaos. I discovered they had just returned from the ER, where their toddler had almost died choking on a piece of tape that the medical team struggled to remove.  

Chills ran through me — when would I ever learn? God is master of our timing. They couldn’t have told me they’d need a meal that night. I couldn’t have planned ahead to help them. But I should have known that God would work time and inspiration for the meal into my schedule exactly when they needed it. 

We can never be outside of God’s plan for us. No failure, no missed cue, no sin is a surprise to Him. He is outside of time; He has accounted for it all. He is waiting, watching, wondering, as His Beloved climbs the slide. 

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Copyright 2024 Helen Syski
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