God’s perfect timing

Over the past few weeks, David and I were busy in VA Beach, completing two general contracting jobs elicited from former customers who’ve previously seen David’s skills in action. Although I worked with David as he completely rebuilt a storm-ravaged home in FL, post-Hurricane Ian (see Building an ark is never easy but always worth it), I’m still amazed at his ingenuity and ability to adapt. I’m thoroughly convinced that there’s nothing David can’t repair, replace, and restore.  

The first of David’s jobs was to re-screen a massive 26-by-20-foot screen porch and fix its wooden exit doors that wouldn’t shut. His second project was to rip out concrete paving stones and create a new 14-foot artistic patio with a stone firepit centerpiece on another job site. Both contracts proved to be labor-intensive, with unique challenges to overcome.   

While my help is mostly rudimentary, I enjoy assisting in whatever capacity the situation allows. I often tell people that God prepared me my whole life for working with David. I’m not afraid of manual labor and love learning new skills. Knowing I can help David as he completes these jobs is incredibly satisfying – and consistently adventurous. I never know what will happen next.

Such was the case when we began David’s porch project. Early into our labors, I noticed the gentle squawks of baby birds that seemed to be emanating from inside the enclosed area. I couldn’t determine where the source of the sound was coming from and didn’t dare look around too much.

Imagine my surprise when one of the homeowners, Jocelyn, later pointed out the unique bird nest built inside an empty cardboard box on her porch. I’d seen the momma nut thatcher earlier as she flew inside the screened area through the open back doors that wouldn’t close properly. I had even snatched a picture of this beautiful, tiny bird while helping her escape the enclosure. I remember thinking she’d entered the porch by accident. She hadn’t. After learning of her babies, I began watching her and her husband visit the nest every 10 minutes or so, bringing bugs and who knows what else to their hungry nestlings.   

As our job crept into the second week with an add-on project of creating a side exit door, wooden steps, and a small concrete pad, I began wondering how we could ensure that the nestlings and their parents would still be able to reach one another once the porch was again enclosed.

“You may need to keep the back doors open when we’re done,” I advised Jocelyn one day. “That way, the parents can still enter, and the babies can get out.” As a mother herself, Jocelyn agreed and said she’d thought of the same thing.   

Day after day, David continued to work. Still, the babies didn’t seem anywhere near the fledgling stage.   

The afternoon before David and I were to complete the job and return to GA, we were surprised to learn that all three nestlings had not only all fledged but had also wholly vacated their nest.   

“God’s timing is so perfect,” I exclaimed after hearing the news.  

“So true,” agreed Jocelyn. “God is awesome.”   

And yet, how often do we doubt our Heavenly Father’s unique understanding of what’s needed in our lives? Rather than trusting God, we plead and petition for what we want – restored health, a new job, a home, or even love – without considering our Lord’s timing. We’re such impatient people. Between instant messaging, microwave meals, and streaming services, there’s not much we have to wait for anymore.   

I remember learning patience growing up. For example, I distinctly recall the anticipation of receiving our annual Sears Christmas catalog in the mail when I was between six to ten years of age. As I salivated over the pages, dreaming of all the ways my new toys would enhance my life, I loved the excitement of circling everything I wanted. While I seldom received anything from the catalog, it was still fun to see what each festively wrapped package would reveal on Christmas morning – and I was never disappointed.   

Fast forward a decade, and I can still recall feeling like my senior year in high school would never arrive – until it did. And then, after daydreaming about how exciting it would be to walk down the aisle to Pomp and Circumstance, the ceremony passed in a heartbeat.   

Waiting until I was 21 to get my driver’s license offered another unique exercise in my patience training. I never took Driver’s Ed in high school and had to wait until I had a car I could drive before even attempting to pass the test. What a feeling of triumph when I ultimately held my first license in my hand!  

I could say the same about my first car and apartment. I didn’t have any of those things until I ventured out alone after my second abusive marriage. I remember the thrill of having my own refrigerator – with all the foods I wanted, not what someone else insisted we have. Nothing compared to that simple joy. It took me months to afford an actual store-bought mattress and boxspring set rather than the wafer-thin, uncomfortable Walmart futon I’d been sleeping on. The gratification I felt from this new acquisition was profound.

Inevitably, trading my futon for a Lazyboy sofa brought intense satisfaction, as was purchasing my first home – bought with my painstakingly restored credit and frugally saved money. It took years of saving and earning my way to such moments of triumph and satisfaction – all with God’s help. I remember dancing around the house with my arms raised in praise after signing my life away on my new 30-page home loan. I couldn’t stop thanking God for bringing me to that moment.

But the grandest reward to a lifetime of learned forbearance was ultimately receiving a gift so undeserved yet undeniable as the incalculable love of my irreplaceable husband, David. I remember my innocent dreams of finding my soulmate when I was younger. To think I once believed I could earn love from men who knew nothing of God is ludicrous to me now. Disappointment and heartache soon proved that notion was nonsensical. No matter how hard I hoped it would, such a result would never materialize. 

I had long ago given up ever finding God’s perfect love personified in a man – so I gave up looking. I was content to be alone, serving my Savior however I could, living for the day when He’d call me home to my place in Glory. I wasn’t interested in looking for a compatible spouse on Earth. I truly believed that such a thing could never exist. After all, that’s what I’d consistently learned and lived.   

But then God’s perfect timing put my soulmate and me together in the most unlikely circumstances – sweating our guts out while helping hurricane victims in FL. Neither of us was looking for anything other than the exultation of serving our Savior during that trip.   

Still, as David tells me, he looked heavenward when I first offered to share my lunch with him on day one of our combined disaster relief work. “Is she the one, God?” David questioned.   

“Be patient,” a still, small voice seemed to whisper to David in return. Thank goodness he listened.   

And here we are today. I’m still in awe of our Savior’s timing. Even when both David and I had given up on love, even though we accepted that we might never receive genuine human tenderness here on Earth, God gave us both the same – in abundance. Our Heavenly Father’s grace, provision, and generosity are unfathomable.   

And so, I ask you to be patient, beloved. Your Heavenly Father knows what’s best for you no matter what you’re hoping, praying, and beseeching God for.  

“For My thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways My ways,” says the Lord. “For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways, And My thoughts than your thoughts.” (Isaiah 55: 8-9)  

In God’s perfect timing, fledglings will fly, hearts will mend, and all things will be restored. Our Savior is our “Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.” (Isaiah 9:6)   

Nothing is impossible with Christ – in His perfect timing.