Waiting: A Sacred Encounter with God

As Advent approaches, Ivonne J. Hernandez invites readers to embrace waiting as an opportunity for grace.

We spend a large part of our lives waiting: waiting in traffic, waiting in line, waiting for other people, waiting for an illness to run its course. This is not something we usually look forward to, but rather something to be avoided (by careful planning) or managed, by doing something productive or entertaining while we wait.

We have so much on our plates that we try to carve out time wherever we can find it. We don’t have time left to just sit around and wait, yet somehow, it seems as if life usually has a different plan. Or should I say, God has a different plan? 

When Waiting Becomes Grace 

As I type these words, I find myself sitting in my car, waiting for my son to finish a class. I knew I would have to wait for an hour, so I brought my laptop and planned to use the time to write my blog. Waiting was easy, and the time flew by. 

This morning, however, I faced an unexpected delay. I spent over an hour waiting for my turn at a medical office. I was able to wait patiently because I didn’t have anything scheduled immediately afterward — but had that not been the case, I’m sure it would have been much harder to accept the circumstances. I find that my patience is inversely proportional to how much my plans are disrupted. It is when I have to surrender my plan and accept God’s plan that feelings of anger and frustration bubble up inside. But it is precisely this moment of decision that becomes a moment of grace. 

We don’t have a choice about whether we are sick or stuck in traffic, but we do have a choice in how we respond to the situation at hand. Rather than seeing the delay as a time thief, we can choose to see the time of waiting as a gift from God. 

This morning in the waiting room, rather than taking out my phone and filling the time with mindless entertainment, I decided to raise my eyes and look around. I began to pray for people as they walked by, thinking that God had placed me there for that purpose today. My entire perspective changed, and I received a gift in return. God was there, waiting with me and waiting for me. Had I just run in and out of my appointment as I originally planned, I would have missed it. God had a better plan than the one I had. 

Preparing Room for God 

Advent will soon be here. It is a time of expectant waiting. A time to pause, to ponder, and to prepare. Perhaps we can clear some space on our plates and leave room for what God wants to place there instead. The invitation might come by way of frustration, but if we recognize it, we might find God with us in the most unexpected way. Learning to wait with joy, let us prepare the way of the Lord. 

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Copyright 2025 Ivonne J. Hernandez
Images: Canva

This article was first published in the Elisheba Blog. It is published here with permission.