One night 15 years ago I was making a wish to have my teeth beautiful and straight. I thought: Oh, it would be great to wake up in the morning, look at the mirror and see there a radiant smile with my straight teeth. Next morning I woke up and realized that my wish didn’t come true. It made me really sad. Later on my dad afforded to get dental braces for me and my sister. It was even more expensive than it is today. It was rare to wear braces in our small city at that time, so some people were saying that my dad doesn’t know how else to please daughters that’s why he decided to implant diamonds in our teeth 🙂 During the very first days of wearing braces I was so thankful to God for not fulfilling my dream – to straigten my teeth in one night. The pain was severe. I couldn’t eat much. Every bite of a fresh bread during the first days seemed like a stone. This week for some reason I got braces again. It hurts the same way. But I am glad it won’t take me that long as before to wear them.
It makes me think about many things in my “still 30” life right now. I trust God to do everything in my life in a perfect time, in a time that is by His will. But sometimes I have wishes like this wish of having straight teeth in the morning. Those wishes of having restored relationships with loved ones, being fluent in French, getting to the next stage on the relationship with a guy I like, getting a better position at work, being able to change the world and so on. But if we agreed to wear braces that means we agreed to have pain, feel uncomfortable, be vulnerable and wait for the result. It’s obvious when it’s about dental braces. But when it comes to invisible braces of our life it drives us crazy. We become so impatient. We don’t want to be vulnerable. We want things to be changed right here and right now.
Sometimes we get too blind and we want God to answer our prayers (=wishes) immediately and only in the way that we think is best. But when I look back on my life, I am grateful to Jesus Christ for keeping track on time in my life. I am grateful to Jesus Christ for not answering my prayers, that were my wishes without understanding, the wishes that could hurt me or kill me instead of being a good thing for me. (As I wear braces right now and feel lots of pain, I feel terrified of imagining the pain of straigtening the teeth in one night!). I am grateful to Jesus Christ for different seasons (with and without braces) in every area of my life. In my physical life of dealing with health issues, in my emotional journey with my family and friends, in my personal growing and in my spiritual walk with Him. Those different seasons bring me closer to Jesus Christ and teach me to take time to learn, to accept, to hope, to love and to wait on His timing that is always Best!