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"What loads we carry
What weights we bear
What roads we trod
What burdens we share"
Sang every donkey as he trudged along,
Yes, every donkey; all except one.
Down barren valleys
And up ragged hills
The herd trotted on
To Jerusalem's frills
The anthem rang all the way to Bethany
But this one little colt, not a sound made he.
"What's the matter, Colt?"
Asked the kind herdsman
Little Colt sadly sighed
A terrible day it had been.
All his peer colts had their first loads on their backs
But he had been left out, this strapping young lad!
"I had my instructions
So don't be fussy, Colt,
You were not to be ridden,
No cargo, you must hold,"
Said the kind herdsman watching his ward's weary gait
"The Master has some use for you, you must learn to wait!"
And that did the trick
Colt was excited to see
Just what awaited him
There in Bethphage
The journey finally ended, the donkeys had their rest
But nothing could be done for poor Colt's fallen crest.
There was nothing in Bethany
Nothing for months since
He stood waiting by the door
He just wouldn't come in
"Maybe the Master's forgotten," one day he wondered
"Maybe He found another colt, one so much better."
And then on a day
A day like any other
A stranger untied him
And his dear old mother
He panicked. Had he been sold? Was he no longer needed?
Was he foolish to have waited or to the Master have heeded?
"Stop," cried the herdsman
"Where are you taking Colt?"
"The Master needs him,"
That's all he was told.
He smiled and waved goodbye as they led poor Colt on
"Hush," whispered the herdsman, "now it won't be long."
They took off their cloaks
Laid them on Colt's back
Colt watched the Man
As He mounted and sat
Colt's eyes, they lit up, he was completely sure
This was the moment he had been waiting for!
The crowd cheered "Hosanna"
Laid palms on the ground
The Man smiled but there was
More than He was letting on
"He didn't look heavy to me," thought dear little Colt
"Is it the weight of His heart I bear, a share of His load?"
"Mom and I trot back
Home before it's too late
My back and my heart
They still feel His weight
Even if only for a while, what weight we did bear,
I'm glad I waited for the Master. What burdens we shared."
If you’ve been to this blog before, you would have noticed quite a bit written on waiting. Much of what the Lord taught me as I did just that. So to anyone who empathized with me then, I owed one on what the end of the wait felt like.
Let me first say, it was nothing like what I had expected it would be. I had envisioned dramatic drum rolls as the curtains were finally raised and revealed under the spotlight the perfect, clear plan of God for the rest of my life. The end of my waiting on the side-lines was anything but that. As I am called to come up and take my place, I realize that
1. Much of the fogginess in the road ahead still lingers
2. I did not come out of my waiting flawlessly fit for what I have been called to do. I still need to be desperately dependent on God and I still need some painful pruning much more often than I would have hoped.
3. To my surprise, life doesn’t get easier.
But what did happen was this. Set squarely on shoulders was a weight, a burden, a responsibility. One that God had been equipping me for in my wait- a share in His burden for His World and His Church, a share in the suffering He endured for the sake of the ones He came for, a share of the weight of rejection by ones He would lay down His life for. I, like Colt, had waited so that I might be equipped to, one day, share in the weight He carried.
For how could it be any other way? The one I follow was called and consecrated, but had to first be crucified before He was crowned. How could it be any other way for me?