It wasn’t that the timing was wrong, not exactly. But since we’d gotten used to having just one dog in the past several weeks, adopting another felt at best a little premature and maybe downright foolish. How were we going to find the time and energy to care for a new dog?

Scripture often emphasizes the fact that God’s timing differs significantly from ours. His schedule, His season, His plan, as explored in last week’s post. Sometimes He wants us to wait; sometimes He wants us to act. Either way, it’s always His proper, right and perfect timing, which we might perceive—if we pay attention.

Proper Timing

Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up. Galatians 6:9 NIV

After Cato died, we told Denise Merricks, who boards and trains dogs at her center in Tye River and is currently the head of our county’s SPCA, that we were open to a second dog who needed a home like ours. We also told her that we were too old for a puppy and would not take another troubled dog. But when Denise saw this four-year-old, 105-pound Yellow Lab-Shepherd mix, she sensed he was a good match for us. And she was right.

In Galatians 6:9, Paul encourages believers to persevere in righteous actions, faith, and helping others despite lack of energy or immediate results. Spirit-led efforts will produce spiritual rewards—a harvest—according to God’s time. Paul knows that doing good is tiring, having experienced much of the same himself. But as long as we live, we must keep going, even when we’re tired and our actions are unappreciated. Proper timing means results might not be immediate, so we must be patient.

Lark is the same size and age as Mac and is very sweet, but his previous world had been small. We haven’t let him off leash yet, though he’s eager to explore the woods like Mac does, and he doesn’t know either voice or hand commands. But he’s learning, in his proper time.

Right Timing

At the right time, I, the Lord, will make it happen. Isaiah 60:22b NLT

Fifty years ago, I accompanied my first husband, an avid photographer, to the Ansel Adams Workshop in Yosemite. Adams was a kindly man, still taking photographs with his huge view camera but no longer able to manage the subtleties of printing due to age and arthritis. This photograph, printed by one of his assistants, was therefore affordable to us when we purchased it from the now-defunct Friends of Photography in the 80s. 

Adams was best known as a landscape photographer and for his preparation, patience, and right timing to get the perfect shot. He gave credit not so much to planning but to His spontaneous gifts of light and timing. “Sometimes I arrive just when God’s ready to have someone click the shutter,” he said. The so-called Adams Moment: the ability to select the precise moment for doing something for optimum effect.

In scripture, the prophet Isaiah highlighted God’s perfect timing, taking what might appear to be insignificant and turning it into a great and powerful outcome. He is never late; He is never early; He always gets the right shot at the right time. This is a message of hope and another opportunity to trust in Him.

Perfect Timing

But do not forget this one thing, dear friends: With the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day. 2 Peter 3:8 NIV

Sometimes it’s hard to understand God’s timing. Here in Virginia, we are coping with drought and very dry conditions. Forest fires break out often and easily. Vegetation thirsts.

The Apostle Peter reminds us that God is outside of human time; His timing, His perspective on time, is fundamentally different from ours. He is not bound by human, chronological constrains. Time passes neither faster nor slower than is suitable for His purpose. A day is as effective as a thousand years, and vice versa, as noted in Psalm 90:4: A thousand years in your sight are like a day that has just gone by, or like a watch in the night.

God is neither oblivious to the passage of time nor slow. And so, it was with gratitude that we welcomed this past weekend’s nourishing rain and wait patiently for more. God’s timing is good, all the time.

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