Back in 2015, we were excited to travel to Missouri right after Christmas to celebrate with our family. Our daughter and her husband were hosting us and our son’s family for a celebration at their home. We had two grandchildren at the time. One was three and the other a baby. A gift we received at that gathering was the book “Waiting” by Kevin Henkes. It is a delightful picture book and it has become a family favorite over the years. One of my happiest memories is that of our son reading it to three of our grandchildren last Advent as we were waiting for the birth of our youngest grandchild.

I chose the book for a small group discussion at our church. As part of an Advent series, we watched a short video of the author and illustrator reading the book to a small group of children. They, like our grandchildren, were really engaged in the story and enjoyed looking at the illustrations and noticing small details in the pictures. In the story, “The owl with spots was waiting for the moon. … When the moon came up the owl was happy. It happened a lot.”

One of the things we discussed in our group last night was something that Kevin Henkes said to the children: “I think that now that I am older it is easier to wait.” There were mixed feeling about that statement in our group. Some of our group still find it difficult to wait. Some aren’t sure that their patience has grown with their age and maturity. Others agreed with Henkes.

I don’t know if it is easier for me to wait these days than it was when I was a child. I do think that children have to wait a lot and I agree that it can be hard for them. I do think, however, that I understand the owl even better these days. I understand the owl better than I did when we first got the book because we now live farther north where the winter nights are longer. Of course we don’t live really far north. Above the arctic circle there are communities that won’t see a sunrise now until early January. They will have days next summer when the sun doesn’t set, but that is six months away. Right now they have to deal with days when the sun doesn’t rise. But we live far enough north for me to notice the long winter nights when the sun sets at 4 in the afternoon and doesn’t rise again until 8 the next morning.

On these long winter nights, we wait for the moon. We notice the phases of the moon. Last night was a night when the moon was our friend. It was light enough to see whatever I wanted in my yard last night. Last night was a full moon and the light bathed the land enough to brighten the world.

In the book, it happened a lot. Around here it doesn’t happen quite as often because we have a lot of nights when the clouds are too thick to see the moon and the benefit of its light is lost on those of use living below the clouds. Last night, however, there were no clouds and I was as happy as the owl in the book.

When we decided to move to this place, I worried a bit about the rain and the gray days. I am not particularly sensitive to seasonal affective disorder, but I have lived most of my life in places where there are a lot of sunny days each year. It rains a lot more here. Our first winter in the Pacific northwest we lived in a rental house that was very nice, but a bit dark for us. We noticed the clouds a lot. This winter, there has been less rain, but there are still a lot of overcast days. We have learned to look for and appreciate patches of blue sky whenever we are outdoors in the day. And we have learned to go for our daily walks as early as possible because it simply is more fun to walk in the daylight than after dark. Our work lives sometimes require us to walk after dark and we have learned to do so when necessary, but we prefer to walk in the day.

I still have to wait a lot. I wait in waiting rooms at the doctor’s office and even though I am in good health there seem to be more trips to the doctor these days. I have a family physician and a dermatologist and a dentist and an optometrist. We wait for injections at the pharmacy. We wait for others in line ahead of us at the post office. We wait for cars to move at busy intersections. We wait in line to check out at the grocery store. We wait for meetings to begin and we wait for them to end. It seems like there are lots of days when waiting is part of my life.

Most of the time I don’t mind all that much. A friend once heard me complain about waiting at the doctor’s office and challenged me to see those times of waiting as a gift. “You have a busy life. You complain that you don’t have enough time to just sit and think. Then, when someone gives you the gift of time to sit and think, you complain about waiting. Why not see it as a gift of prayer.” It really helps me to accept times of waiting as a gift of time for prayer. I have hard evidence from the difference in blood pressure when I finally get into the exam room. I no longer have that spike in blood pressure that used to some with arriving in the exam room. The nurse no longer has to wait to the end of the exam to check my blood pressure a second time.

It seems, however, that children still have things to teach me about waiting. Unlike the characters in the picture book, I wait for many things. I wait for the wind and the snow and the rain as well as for the moon. When those things arrive, I am happy. And sometimes, I am happy when I am waiting.