Waiting Is Not Easy
splitting light and marking time
Tomorrow is the Spring Equinox —
splitting light to mark time.
Out at the far edge of our field
the oak tree stands with
leaves from last year still hanging on.
For everything created, to be is to be temporal, and to be temporal is to be indebted to a past and oriented to a future.
James K.A. Smith
A couple weeks ago David told me about a new TV show, The Pitt, which is streaming on HBO Max right now — it’s a sort of reboot of the 1994-2009 TV series ER, he said, and, though I am not very good at watching TV, for some reason this one caught my attention (I have never even seen an episode of the original ER show) so I asked to watch the first episode with him and was surprised to find myself instantly hooked.1 We watched a couple episodes each night till we caught ourselves up to the weekly rollout and now have to wait for new episodes on Thursday nights.
Hooked on The Pitt, I found myself caught up in the habit of watching TV each night, which is highly unusual for me! and then David asked if I wanted to watch anything else next (he misses having his boys around to watch TV with him!!!). Short of any new ideas that fit me, he proposed that we could go back and pick up where we left off a couple years ago with The Chosen. We gave it a shot Tuesday night and after determining that we had left off at Season 3, Episode 5, the second of a two-parter, we sat down to watch. Never mind that I have no idea when we watched the first part or what was in it exactly, it was easy to drop into the story — we’re pretty familiar with the source material 😊 .
There was a scene within this episode where Zebedee, is talking to his sons John and James, and he is earnestly rejoicing in the fact that his boys have left fishing to follow Jesus. As a father who has long waited within his religious tradition for the promised Messiah, and raised his boys to watch and wait for the same, in this scene we get to see Zebedee’s profound joy as he says to his boys —
My father taught me how to fish. He fished his whole life, raised six kids, went to synagogue two times a week, and died waiting for the Messiah. Then I took over and turned his boat into a fleet, raised you boys, fed a hundred families, went to synagogue and waited for the Messiah — till I was old. My legacy was waiting for the Messiah as much as it was fishing. I only fished to make ends meet until you got your real jobs. Your whole life has led to this. He chose you!!
There are many directions my mind could have gone as I watched this scene, but what grabbed me —> My legacy was — waiting for the Messiah. The scene portrays a man experiencing deep, deep satisfaction as he gets to see the fulfillment of his lifelong waiting. A waiting that has been passed to him through generations. His own father died waiting. Probably his grandfather before him. This man knows waiting.
I know there are blurred lines in this made-for-tv story vs. the biblical accounts, but that makes no difference to my connection with this scene and my resonance with the hard, hard work of waiting through time.
On my Facebook scroll this week I stopped at a video clip that a friend posted of her young daughter reading from one of my favorite Mo Willems Elephant and Piggie books — Waiting is Not Easy! (you can see it read on a Willems official site here —though nothing really compares to the fun of hearing an emerging reader put voices to Elephant and Piggie in real time!) I commented on my friend’s post to say that I actually have that book on my desk right now. And what delight it is to this former elementary educator’s ears to hear a young child navigating through the challenges particular to her own self as she finds joy in becoming a reader!
In Waiting Is Not Easy, the story begins with Piggie telling Elephant that he has a surprise to share with him, but he must wait for it. The next pages show us Elephant’s earnest attempts at waiting patiently, but it is so hard to wait!! At one point Elephant walks off the page stating emphatically that he WILL NOT WAIT ANYMORE! And then we turn the page, to find there Elephant is back again, sheepishly admitting that he’s still in the game. Waiting some more.
That is me.
In the final pages, Elephant begins to panic —We have been waiting too long! But still, his friend Piggie holds steady - It’s worth it, Piggie maintains, without producing any solid evidence, simply presence.
It is getting dark!! cries Elephant. We have waited and waited and waited!
And it is getting dark indeed. The characters stand against a black background as Elephant cries out in despair —they have been waiting ALL DAY with nothing at all to show for it.
And then….. Piggie points to the heavens….
And we get a two-page-spread of silence beneath a star-filled sky.
I’ve been thinking a lot about waiting lately.
Putting pins in it. And writing some.
Mostly I’m just doing it.
And grateful for the people who are Piggie to my Elephant.
A Song for The Waiting
Sandra McCracken, Luke Laird, Brett Taylor, Shadowlands
For the lonely, for the stranded
Restless, ruined and empty handed
In every season and every station
We live in hopeful desperation…
Through the sands of time under ancient stars
We are leaning on the everlasting arms
📍RELATED
📌 Waiting in 17 Beats - me
📌 Practicing Hope with Maggie - me
Rusty the Farm Dog went to the Vet last Friday morning because he’d been limping all week. I feel like he may need a Substack posting of his own! to tell his stories. But until then, if his smile in this picture is any indication - and it is! - he is doing fine.
I have thoughts on this - perhaps, I will write about another time.