Everything Beautiful

In the Waiting Do you ever sit and watch adorable couples dote on each other and wish from the bottom of your heart that you could be in their place? You long to be held in the arms of the man whom you love with all your heart. You yearn to feel the warmth and tenderness of his love on a daily basis. You want to have kids with his eyes and your laugh.

And perhaps… in the waiting… you find yourself questioning God. ‘Why haven’t You given me my husband yet? Why don’t You just hurry up and send him already? Do You even want me to get married? I thought You said You had a perfect plan for me.’

(See the downward trajectory? In the first place, we started out bad, but we just really finished it off worse.)

These hard questions can fill us with doubt and disquiet.

In this moment of uncertainty, I want to remind you of something important, something so filled with truth it ought to make us reflect on the goodness of God. 

This verse from Ephesians 3:11a has brought tears to my eyes on numerous occasions. Its simplicity, yet deepness, awoke a gratitude in my heart like never before. 

Notice the word ‘has’. Remember, the God of eternity knows the future, is in the future and it is His own hand that plans it out.

He HAS done a good work. He HAS accomplished what He planned. He isn’t making everything beautiful, but he HAS. 

‘Everything beautiful’.

Yes, all of it. Even the dirty things no one likes to talk about. That means the broken heart, the cringing situations, the chipped bowl, the smudged glass. It has all been made beautiful. As beautiful as the rising sun and the setting same.

‘In His time’. I can rest in the assurance that His timing is perfect. If His timing is perfect, why should I be impatient when He has promised to work out everything for His glory and our good? 

Trust Him.

So back to our questions when longing for ‘our guy’ to make his awaited debut. 

“Why haven’t You given me my husband yet? Why don’t You just hurry up and send him already?” 

Perhaps God is using this waiting time to grow you and your future husband. I have often thought that perhaps if I met him now, I would refuse him because he doesn’t have the godly qualities I’m seeking (and vice versa). Perhaps God is using this time to beautify the diamond and shine the gold. 

“Do You even want me to get married?”

God has a different plan for every single person on this earth. No story will ever be the same. Yet out of the billions of people on this earth, many of them are married. Marriage is a beautiful way to exemplify the love Christ has for His bride. God is not against marriage by any means. But sometimes He grants us the unique gift of singleness (either permanent or temporarily) and we need to realize it’s the way God will use us for now. We must never see singleness as a handicap or burden, but as a gift from God. And in that singleness it’s a good reminder that our bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit. We are not our own for we were bought with a price. Glorify the Lord in everything.

Trust Him. 

The Lord hears the cries of our heart. He is by no means deaf to His children’s pleas. He is our Father and as our Father seeks our best interest. But, as Elisabeth Elliot said, ‘God will not protect you from anything that will make you more like Jesus.’ If singleness is God’s way of making you more like His son, He may not have a wedding in mind just yet.

One thing I struggle with is releasing control. I really want to know what’s going to happen next and how I can be prepared for it. But here we see we need not be anxious about anything— about who we marry, if he’s going to be the right guy, and the list goes on. We need to release our control hungry thoughts into the hands of the sovereign and providential God.

So trust Him. 

In our waiting, we can do all things to the glory of God. Don’t you dare look inward and have a pity party on ‘poor, pitiful you’. Use this blessed opportunity to encourage and support others. Find another single lady and work together on patience.

Praying for your future spouse is another beautiful thing you can do. But don’t just pray FOR him (that God will send him) but pray for HIM (his growth in the Lord, etc). Kneeling by your bed and lifting him to heaven is a special way you can be involved. 

Surrender your will to the Lord’s. His will is so much better than ours; I sometimes scratch my head in wonder at our natural tendency to believe ours is still better. 

Trust Him.

Fully.

He has made everything beautiful in His time.