Pro 13:12 Hope deferred maketh the heart sick: but when the desire cometh, it is a tree of life.

What is sweeter than getting what you have longed for? The Bible as some beautiful illustrations (numerous ones!) about waiting... Isa 30:18 carries the idea that the Lord LONGS to be gracious, that He lifts Himself up waiting, as if to peer at the horizon, waiting for the longed-for one to appear.... It conveys the idea of anxiety, and a sort of piercing of the heart as one waits. And so it is when we wait for a deferred dream.

But how sweet it is when the dream is fulfilled! When the wait is over! This is not to say that it is easy to wait- no, every day we wait becomes somehow longer, and there are times when one's life is so parched that it is all one can do not to cry out to the Lord in despair. Life can be full of bitter disappointments. And yet when the desire comes....! Suddenly you can hear the birds again, and even the smallest thing reminds you of the joy in your heart. I venture to say that this is not least because that time of waiting is like distillation, refining us and changing us (without our permission, most times) and giving us a greater appreciation for the longed-for thing. When it comes, how much more readily we guard it, how much more we treasure it.