Truly, waiting is a virtue.
Last month, I excitedly prepared for a month’s vacation in Minnesota to personally reunite with my husband’s two estranged sons. Bitter divorce, character assassination, and misinformation all contributed to 30-plus years of estrangement. Knowing how badly my husband missed his two sons, I decided to pray for reconciliation and change of heart, and encouraged him to pray also. That was almost 20 years of almost nightly prayers!
Then, last December, the younger son found his long-lost father on Facebook and decided to send him a private message; he responded, and they exchanged phone numbers. We felt like lotto winners! Finally, prayers answered in God’s own perfect time!
So from not speaking for 30 years to every Sunday or more phone calls between father and sons was quite the miracle! It was like there never was a gap, catching up on all the lost time spent apart. There were a lot of catching up, after all.
Then, last February my husband suffered a stroke — totally unanticipated and a shock. I had to call the two sons and they were both stunned. Fortunately, their father made a complete recovery save for some weakness in the left arm. The younger son would later confess that my phone call made him realize that life is so fragile.
Upon arrival in Minnesota, after two days of driving, I purposely lingered in the car to give father and older son time to get acquainted. First the son shook his hand, and I thought to myself: “Oh-oh, a handshake after almost 30 years of no contact? Doesn’t look good!” But then after the handshake came a long, rib-crushing hug. “Yes, everything is okay!” After a while, the younger son arrived and this time, no handshake, just another long hug.
Soon we got to meet most of the relatives down to the great-grandchildren. What a blessing! We enjoyed nightly family dinners, fishing, lake cruising, picnicking along the beach, visiting grandparents’ graves for the first time at the VA cemetery, sightseeing with the clan. I was pleasantly surprised that the sons were not afraid to demonstrate affection, particularly before retiring for the night—hugs and “I love yous.” I thought: I could get used to this.
I was reminded of a sermon I had heard. God answers our prayers in three ways: No—what we ask for is not good for us and is not in His plan; yes—what we ask for is in His plan; or wait—we have to be patient and wait for God’s perfect time.
We definitely fell under the third category: Wait for the answer in God’s perfect time. The answer to almost 20 years of almost nightly prayers was surely worth the wait.
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Olive Quimba O’Donnell, 65, retired two years ago from the US federal government and lives with her family in Las Vegas, Nevada. She is a political science graduate of the University of Santo Tomas.