Day Two: Waiting Is an Art

I was glad when they said to me, "Let us go to the house of the LORD!"

Our feet are standing within your gates, O Jerusalem.

Jerusalem built as a city that is bound firmly together.

To it the tribes go up, the tribes of the LORD, as was decreed for Israel, to give thanks to the name of the LORD.

For there the thrones for judgment were set up, the thrones of the house of David.

Pray for the peace of Jerusalem: "May they prosper who love you.

Peace be within your walls, and security within your towers."

For the sake of my relatives and friends I will say, "Peace be within you."

For the sake of the house of the LORD our God, I will seek your good.

Psalm 122


Today's reading contains a portion of a letter Bonhoeffer wrote to his fiancee, Maria von Wedemeyer, from his jail cell. They were engaged three months prior to his imprisonment, with the public announcement of their engagement coming after the arrest. Though they knew each other quite well before becoming engaged, their life as a couple was spent with Dietrich behind bars. The letter talks about the dark hours both are experiencing and yet it contains a great deal of hope. One of the most striking lines reads "God is in the manger, wealth in poverty, light in darkness, succor in abandonment." The letters Bonhoeffer exchanged with Maria are full of love and hope. They also show the reality of their relationship: they had to wait. In many of her letters, Maria encouraged Bonhoeffer, saying "don't get tired and depressed, my dearest Dietrch, it won't be much longer now (Bonhoeffer in Love)."

Waiting takes patience. As we discussed yesterday, patience is very difficult in our modern lives. We must make a conscious effort to wait. Today, meditate on the idea of what it means "to struggle with the deepest questions of life...to patiently look forward with anticipation until the truth is revealed (God is in the Manger, 4)." Then, think about "the splendor of the moment in which clarity is illuminated (ibid.).