How Long, Lord? A Prayer for the Waiting

The night was long in David's house,
and sleep would not come.
He had waited, and waited, and waited some more,
until he began to wonder
if anyone remembered he was there at all.

Do you remember David, the shepherd boy
who stood under the wide night sky
and asked why the star-Maker should think of him?
Now his question had grown heavier.
Had God forgotten him altogether?

So David did the bravest thing a sad heart can do.
He talked to God about it.
He told God exactly how it hurt,
with no pretty words in the way.

"How long, Lord?
How long will you forget me?
Will it be forever?

How long will you hide your face,
as if you have turned away?

How long must I carry this sorrow,
day after day after day?
My heart aches.
The night feels so long,
and the morning will not come."

David was not pretending.
He was not putting on a happy face.
He felt forgotten.
He felt far from God.
And he told God so.
You can do that too, little one.
You can bring God your whole heavy heart,
just the way it is.

So David kept on praying.
"Look at me," he said.
"Answer me.
Light up my eyes again,
or the dark will swallow me whole."

And then, right in the middle of the prayer,
something began to turn,
the way a long night turns toward morning.

It did not turn because David's troubles ended.
We do not even know if they had.
It turned because David remembered
what his sadness had made him forget.

He remembered that God loves.
He remembered the times God had come through before.

"But I trust your steady love," he said.
"My heart will be glad,
because you are the one who saves.
I will sing to the Lord,
for he has been so good to me."

The prayer that started with "how long?"
ended with a song.
The very same heart, the very same day:
tears at the beginning,
singing at the end.

And when David cried "how long,"
he was not the only one waiting.
The whole world was waiting too,
asking the same question into the dark.
How long until you come, Lord?
How long until you make it right?

One day, God answered.
He did not stay far off.
He came close,
close enough to hold,
close enough to cry the very same tears,
close enough to sit with us in the dark.

His name is Jesus.

He knows the long nights.
He knows exactly what "how long?" feels like,
because he prayed it too.
And he made a promise.
One day he will reach out his own gentle hand
and wipe every tear from every eye.
Then the waiting will be over,
and the real morning will come.

So if your heart is waiting tonight,
you can pray like David.
Tell God how it hurts,
every word of it.
Then listen, deep down under the sadness,
where a song is learning to begin.