By Katy Mariotti

When We Don’t Understand

You can listen to today’s devotion by clicking on this SoundCloud link.

“So when they had come together, they asked him, ‘Lord, will you at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?’  He said to them, ‘It is not for you to know times or seasons that the Father has fixed by his own authority.  But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.'”
Acts 1:6-8 English Standard Version

I have always struggled to accept and understand God’s timing. Sometimes it’s just in the little things, like this picture of a snow storm. We were in the mountains for my husband’s birthday so he could go snowboarding. On the day he went there was no new snow, and yet on the morning we left, when we would have to drive in it, it snowed. Why did the timing work out like that?

I’ve noticed when I want something really badly, it rarely happens exactly when I want it to. I often have to wait, or it doesn’t happen at all (or at least hasn’t happened yet!) I am a singer and have worked for years to get the voice I have now. I often wonder why I am only finally understanding how to do things with my voice now, at 40, instead of in my 20s, when other people I know were pursuing a career in singing.

Sometimes it’s even harder to understand God’s timing. Just a few days ago, a wonderful boy that I directed in a musical last year passed away suddenly at the age of 14. Why him? Why now? Why did God have to take him home at such a young age?

I don’t know if we’ll understand God’s timing until we join Jesus in heaven, but Acts tells us that it’s not for us to “know times or seasons.” What God does promise is that the power of the Holy Spirit will be with us, and that we are to be witnesses. I think in all the waiting I’ve had to do, I have felt the Holy Spirit at work, especially when I look back. And I know the boy’s family I spoke of is feeling the Holy Spirit in their lives right now, and being witnesses in a way that amazes me.

I pray that we can feel the Holy Spirit even when we can’t understand God’s timing, and I also pray that we can bear witness to God’s power and love in our lives. That snowstorm? It didn’t affect our drive in the slightest, and it was quite beautiful. God, help us to trust You, and to trust Your timing!

Copyright Holy Cross Lutheran Church, Colorado Springs, Colorado