Patience is not normally what we think of first when we think of love. But “love is patient” is the first attribute of love that is listed in the famous love chapter, 1 Corinthians 13, so it deserves some attention. Love is patient, love waits!
If you read the account of a father and his sons in Luke 15:11-32, you get the idea of love waiting. The father probably tried to talk the younger son out of what he was about to do, but some things have to be learned by experience. And since the father was wise, he knew what would eventually happen to the young man. He was hopeful enough that the love he had given his son for his whole life would eventually help the son realize that he needed to go home, even if it meant hitting rock bottom first. Check out verse 20:“But while he [the son] was still a long way off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion for him; he ran to his son, threw his arms around him and kissed him.” I imagine the father praying every day for his son. I imagine him ‘sitting on the porch’ and watching the road. Every cloud of dust or visitor would get his hopes up. If he was a Texan, he would have left the porch light on every night. I can sense his love and joy when the one he loves finally comes home.
Paul talks about waiting as he considers the state of sin in the world in Romans 8 “18 I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us. 19 For the creation waits in eager expectation for the children of God to be revealed.” Sounds a little bit like the world we still live in today, 2000 years later. God is waiting on us. Patiently. But he is not still. He loves us so much that he lets us make decisions that hurt us, waiting for us to finally realize the way we have been doing it isn’t working and that maybe we would try his way. For he is the father in the story of the prodigal son.
When we turn to him, he is there watching for us and ready to run to us and hug us. Ready to throw a heavenly party for us. God is love and love is waiting for you!
