Waiting with Hope
Your waiting feels endless. This journey is likely one you didn’t ask for or anticipate. We see people waiting throughout scripture, and just like you are thrust into a wait with seemingly no end in sight, so was Noah. While his story is probably familiar – an ark, pairs of animals, and a huge flood. I want to remind you NICU families about how Noah waited.
He waited for years as he built the ark.
He waited for seven days for the flood to start once he entered the ark with his family.
He waited as they endured 40 days & nights of the flood rain on the ark.
He waited during the 150 days the waters covered the earth.
He waited for a raven he released to come back to the ark.
He waited for a dove he released to see if it would come back to the ark.
He waited another 7 days after releasing the dove again to see if it would come back to the ark.
He waited another 7 days after releasing the dove again and she did not return.
Finally, came a sign of life and dry land with the sprig of an olive leaf from the dove. There was hope that they were not forgotten. They hadn’t yet seen the rainbow of God’s promise, but it was coming.
When the flood was all over, it says in Genesis 8:1, “But God remembered Noah and all the wild animals and all the livestock that were with him in the ark, and He sent a wind over the earth, and the waters receded.”
I read an article that called Genesis 8:1, “a promise that as things get worse, God does not get further away, but actually more near.” (emphasis added) Along those lines, Brevard Childs says, “God’s remembering always implies his movement toward the object…” How significant that in our loneliest of valleys, our Shepherd has not left us.
He is with us.
In your NICU journey, I want you to know how NEAR God is to you. He remembers you, and He is close. He’s with you as you wait for the test results, the ultrasound, the X-ray, or the surgery. He’s with you as you wait for the doctor to round, as you wait for your pumping session to finish, or as you wait for the hospital elevator. He’s with you as you wait to hold your baby. He is so near in those middle minutes.
May you cling to that truth even when the waters cover the horizon, and no end to waiting is in sight.
