Waiting = God at work: Reflections on God's global purposes in a long adoption process

From of old no one has heard or perceived by the ear, 

no eye has seen a God besides you, 

who acts for those who wait for him.  Isaiah 64:4

The imagery of God the Father sitting before the loom of history artistically weaving together the threads of humanity has been an immense help to me in times when I struggle with impatience.  This Master Craftsman has woven together such threads as 

humans ensnared 

aspirations failed

hopes deferred

civilizations tumbled

conquerors conquered

globalization recycled

masters mastered

mothers desolate

vulnerable abandoned

conception chaste

barren filled

nations fathered

orphans adopted

broken healed

gentiles illumined

death defeated

CHRIST GLORIFIED.

It is God’s patient artistry that produces a historical tapestry with this degree of grandeur.  

My explanation of God’s timing tends toward rudimentary thoughts of His purposes.  I construct explanations such as “God knew life would be easier for us right now without children,” or “He knew we could learn French more rapidly without kids.”  However, I become ashamed when I examine this sort of impoverished appreciation of God’s handy work in light of His historical chronicle of elaborate craftsmanship.  The splendor of His patience in our adoption process must be more magnificent than purposing simply our ease and comfort.

Therefore, despite my small-mindedness and finiteness, I seek to ponder the global purposes of such a God in such a process as earthly international adoption.  And so, I am reminded that we are not the only ones in this adoption story.  God is also working in the lives of another family who may be facing the grief of death, or wrestling with the effects of a shameful conception, or living with the guilt of abandonment, or coping with the desperation of severe poverty, or striving against the injustice of violation, or despairing.  He is working in the heart of a child who may be crying out to be heard, or yearning to be touched, or learning to fend for himself, or fearing the break of day, or feigning trust for adults, or hungering for nourishment, or fighting for provisions, or straining for comfort, or despairing.  And surely He is as always working for the good of His own to eternally free them, by the blood of His Son for the glory of His name, from their grieving, wrestling, striving, hungering, yearning, fearing and despairing.  

For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now.  And not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the first fruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies.  For in this hope we were saved.  Now hope that is seen is not hope.  For who hopes for what he sees?  But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience.  Romans 8:22-25