Watching and waiting

"watching vainly"

Lamentations 4:17

If you watched any of the news the past few weeks, then you probably know who Christopher Dorner was.  The Los Angeles Police Department spent several days looking for him after he killed three people and threatened dozens more.  It was the lead story on the national news for most of those days, until the day they found the house in the mountains where he was hiding out.    

On that day, I was watching a national cable news program, which I do almost every afternoon.  I'm a bit of a wonk when it comes to politics...

That day was also the day of the president's State of the Union address, so that is what the news would have been entirely about, were it not for the manhunt that was coming to a head in the mountains of Southern California.

So while the anchorman was talking about the upcoming speech, and interviewing the White House spokesman about the content, the station had a split screen, with a camera on the mountain community.

Now, the strange thing was, that on the side of the screen where the manhunt coverage was, there was nothing to see.  It was just an overhead shot of some cabins in the area, but not even the cabin where Dorner was.  The LAPD had asked the news choppers to stay back, and the news cameras to not film the exact area, so that if Dorner was watching TV, he wouldn't know what the police perspective was.  So the viewers were really not seeing anything newsworthy.  

But the real reason I was not seeing anything that was happening, was because nothing was happening.  The police had surrounded the cabin, but then it was just a waiting game as they tried to convince Dorner to surrender.   But while there was nothing to see, by having a camera there, the viewers knew that there was nothing to see.  It was almost a reassurance on the part of station, sort of like they were saying, "Don't worry; we're keeping track, and as soon as there's something to see, we'll show it to you."

It made me wish God was like that.  Don't you sometimes have struggles, that you've been praying God would solve or remove or whatever, and you find that you're waiting and trusting and waiting and believing and waiting and then starting to wonder if He has forgotten about you?

Maybe I'm one of His needier children, but wouldn't it be great if we could be sure that God was handling everything?  If He had a way of communicating with us "I know it looks like nothing is happening, but I've got this issue on My front burner, and you just need to trust My timing."

He is trustworthy.  It's a fact whether we remember or acknowledge it or not.  I know that.  I know that I can cast my cares on Him, because He cares for me.  And I may not have a ready split-screen in my life where I can check on His progress, but reassurance is just a scripture away.

~ "Lord, I believe;

    help my unbelief!" ~

Mark 9:24

~