Photo and Commentary (c)2026 by Shelley Schurch
Sunday, January 18, 2026
We moved to Auburn, Washington, 44 years ago, mid-April. From three time zones away, we had rented, sight unseen, a little house near the church where my husband would serve as assistant pastor.
The only thing I remember about our small backyard was a tree that stood right in the middle. My memory sees it as about six or seven feet tall, and a bit spindly. Our landlord told us it was an apple tree.
Buds appeared, then blossoms, then small apples emerged. We waited for them to change color as they grew and ripened. I smiled as I thought of my favorite dessert, apple pie. But the apples seemed to be dragging their feet.
Then my mother came down from Alaska to visit. We introduced her to our backyard and its solitary apple tree, and told her we were waiting eagerly for the apples to redden and ripen.
She leaned forward, gave our apples a good look and laughed. “You’re going to be waiting a long time!” She told us the name of these particular apples (which I’ve long since forgotten) and said they weren’t going to change color. They were ripe and ready, now!
I grew up in southeastern Alaska, home to abundant evergreen trees – spruce, hemlock, cedar, and pine. We didn’t major in apple trees. My husband grew up on the plains of northeastern South Dakota, which didn’t major in trees, period!
But my mother grew up in eastern Washington, and had picked apples to earn money to attend nursing school in Seattle. I had seen her black-and-white photos of those long-ago apple orchards with their long ladders and canvas bags, and heard her apple-picking stories. I remembered how she would pick through the apples in our Alaskan grocery store, saying sadly, “These are the kind we would throw away.”
She knew apples. We did not, so we were waiting for the wrong thing to happen.
This started me musing about people in the Bible who were waiting for the wrong thing. I immediately thought of the Jewish leaders and their followers, waiting for a military Messiah who would set them free from their Roman oppressors.
I’m also thinking of people who were waiting for the right thing, but in the wrong way. Abraham and Sarah heard God’s astounding promise that their descendants would be as numerous as the stars in the sky and the sand on the shore. Childless, they waited. Then, weary of waiting, they decided they needed to hasten God’s hand. Bad choices, terrible consequences.
I’m sure I’ll be able to add many more examples to these two “wait” lists – waiting for the wrong thing, and waiting for the right thing in the wrong way. Because it seems like waiting forms such a large part of our lives — back then and there, and also here and now. Waiting is what we do.
Since as a child I first began to understand what pastors were preaching from their pulpits, I’ve realized that I’m part of a worldwide waiting community – not just my denomination, but many others. We’re all waiting for Jesus to come again – and this time to right all wrongs and make all things new.
Isaiah describes what we waiters will say when that Day finally bursts upon us:
And it will be said in that day:
“Behold, this is our God;
We have waited for Him, and He will save us.
This is the Lord;
We have waited for Him;
We will be glad and rejoice in His salvation.” (Isaiah 25:9 NKJV)
I was surprised to discover that in the above passage a few Bible versions replace the phrase “waited for Him” with “trusted in Him.” But the two seem to go together; I wait for those I trust.
Over and over, the Bible describes how to wait for the right thing in the right way, making our third list the most important one!
Here are two of the many passages that encourage us, while we wait:
I would have lost heart, unless I had believed
That I would see the goodness of the Lord
In the land of the living.
Wait on the Lord; be of good courage,
And He shall strengthen your heart;
Wait, I say, on the Lord! (Psalm 27:13, 14)
But those who wait on the Lord
Shall renew their strength;
They shall mount up with wings like eagles,
They shall run and not be weary,
They shall walk and not faint. (Isaiah 40:31)
Courage, pilgrim!