The Rev. Andrew Patterson, Hospital Chaplain, comments on Luke 12 v 32 - 40

I am not someone who particularly enjoys waiting.

I have been known to display frustration and irritation in such circumstances, yet I know that it is in some situations of waiting that I have been aware of grace received and of that time as a unique gift.

As a young seafarer I was woken before dawn one morning and told to go to the fo’c’sle for the ship’s arrival in Jamaica. Being young and keen I went quickly to my station.

It was still dark and the ship was steaming along the coast, still hours away from port.

Only the ship’s carpenter was there. I helped him prepare the anchors and winches and we waited and chatted.

As we waited the dawn came up, a most spectacular sight, over the sea and over the hills of Jamaica; it was wonderful.

A few hours later we arrived. By then it was another sweaty tropical morning; the crew was assembled, but the magic of the dawn was gone.

Had I been a bit more experienced I might have stayed longer in my bunk and avoided the waiting, but I would have missed that dawn.

Faith requires us to look outside and beyond ourselves.

It is only when we are out there, waiting, that we may receive these moments of light.

Sometimes it is when we are waiting on God in prayer, when nothing seems to be happening, that his light dawns upon us, and the moment is transfigured.

Often it is in caring for and serving others that we find we have been rewarded in ways we could not have imagined and beyond what we could have hoped for.