The Fullness of Time

"When the fullness of time had come, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman..." Galatians 4:4 (NKJV)

We are still anxiously waiting on the birth of our third grandchild who was scheduled to arrive on October 10th, but still hasn't come. Some of us have shed tears and lots of them. You might guess it would be Mary Clayton's Mama, but you would be wrong. Six-year old Julia couldn't stop the tears of disappointment yesterday when we picked her up from school and her baby sister still wasn't here. It was as if we had promised her Christmas Day and then the goal posts moved. We've all expected this baby girl to arrive two weeks ago since both 6-year old Julia and 4-year old Caroline were born early. So this baby feels two weeks late, not just 2 days late.

In all of our anxious waiting and planning for the girls' school carpools, child care duty/shifts with out of town grandparents, food preparation, and a host of other details, I remembered a verse that Paul wrote to the Church in Galatia: "When the fullness of time had come, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman" (Galatians 4:4). The nation of Israel waited hundreds of years for their long promised Messiah. I'm sure they shed a lot more tears during their waiting than Julia has in hers. Israel longed for the Conquering King promised by Isaiah 700 years before Jesus was born. The Old Testament prophets prayed and kept asking "How long, Lord?" (Habakkuk 1:2, Zechariah 1:12) and still no Savior appeared. There were 400 hundred years of silence between the last words of the Old Testament prophets and the first words of John the Baptist. Still they looked, longed, and waited for their promised Messiah.

And then, when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman. God's promise to Israel was fulfilled with the birth of His Son Jesus. I love what author Beth Moore often says: "God is an on time God, seldom early, but never late!" The Messiah's birth was on God's timetable, not Israel's.  But God's timetable wasn't limited just to Jesus' birth. In Romans 5:6 the Apostle Paul declares, "You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly."

In a long season of suffering that included conspiracy, enemies, death threats, sorrow, grief, and anguish, King David simply acknowledged: "My times are in Your hands." Psalm 31:15 (NIV)

The same is true for us. Our times are indeed in His hands. Whether it's the birth of a child, a season of singleness, or the end of our lives on this earth, God is in our waiting. Only God knows when the fullness of our times has come.

"All the days ordained for me (and for Mary Clayton!) were written in Your book before one of them came to be."(Psalm 139:16 NIV)