Sometimes We Have To Wait

If you’ve ever been to Riverbanks Zoo in Columbia, SC, then you may have noticed that it is directly across the street from the South Carolina Baptist State Convention Building. This is the building that houses SC WMU and greeted me almost every day for three years. There were days that I would arrive at work and hear the siamangs calling to one another. There were other days that I’d visit the zoo during my lunch break, just because I wanted to see the bears—they were my favorite—and that’s how close we were to the zoo.

If you’ve ever been to the zoo, then you know that it is a major attraction for children seeing animals that they’ve read about in books for the first time. You also know that the animals don’t hold children’s attention for very long unless they are doing something other than sleeping—which is very often what animals are doing. One of the things that I learned to do when I worked across the street from the zoo was simply to wait. Since I didn’t have to cram a full zoo tour into one afternoon, I could just stand and watch one particular animal for quite some time. Eventually, they would yawn, stretch, get up and walk around, decide it was time to eat, scratch, turn over, play, swim—something! It’s in the waiting that I became fascinated by the brown bears—and the koala bears—both of which I wish I could snuggle.

So it makes sense that the animals I most wanted to visit during a one hour visit to Riverbanks on Tuesday were the brown bears and the koala bears. The brown bears were awake and active. One of them was hanging out in the pool, playing with in the water. The other was sitting on a rock at first, but then he got up to walk around, roll around, and then plop into the water as well. As always, the brown bears made me smile!

When I got to the koalas, they were asleep. I wasn’t surprised. Koalas usually sleep about 20 hours per day, so to see them awake is a rare treat…but I got to see it! Standing there smelling the fragrance of eucalyptus filling the room, I startled to realize that one of the koalas was waking up! He stretched his little arms and opened his little eyes and then just sat there, straight up, until his keeper came and gave him some medicine. Then he stuck out his little tongue, which was extremely cute, hoping for more medicine, until he decided that it was time to go back to sleep.

Meanwhile, the other koala had woken up, stretched his little arms, decided he was hungry, and walked over to get his dinner. Watching him reach his little hand and grab the branches of eucalyptus leaves was so neat! I’d never seen a koala that awake and active, leaves hanging from his mouth, chowing down…

Friends: There is a lot in this world that I don’t understand. Sometimes it seems that society’s problems and heartaches are so grounded that they will not go away. Sometimes it seems that war, conflict, us-against-them, and other dividing forces are so strong that forces of peace, cooperation, togetherness, and unity-through-diversity can do nothing to make a dent. Sometimes the questions and doubts are so poignant and real that answers and faith cannot be seen. And yet—

Sometimes we just have to wait. Even if all the world keeps going, sometimes we just need to remain in place and believe that something more will come. A little hand will stretch. A little mouth will open. A large body will decide that it’s hot and move toward the water. Something will happen. Energy will shift. And Life will make itself abundantly clear. It’s just that sometimes…

Sometimes we have to wait.