Big Buts of the Bible

Hope deferred makes the heart sick, BUT a longing fulfilled is a tree of life. (Proverbs 13:12)

Hope can be hard on the heart when we’re waiting—for an answer, a change, a healing, a reconciliation, a door to open. The longer the waiting stretches, the heavier hope can begin to feel. But this proverb reminds us that waiting is not the whole story. When the thing long hoped for finally arrives, it can breathe life back into places that have grown weary. A tree of life is a beautiful picture: shade after a long journey, fruit after a barren season, life where we feared nothing would ever grow. So if your heart is tired from hoping today, don’t mistake deferred for denied. Sometimes hope has roots growing beneath the surface long before we ever see the fruit.

[Personal note: I’m posting these sequentially through Proverbs. It is amazing how often the proverb for a day speaks particularly into my own life. A tender reminder on God’s timing? Anyone else?]