Sunday Devotion- It took so long

Janet Rubin

Isaiah 66:13 "As a mother comforts her child, so will I comfort you..."

Before I even look up, I know what has happened. I hear the beads clicking against the floor, bouncing and rolling all over the dining room. And Chloe stands there, empty string dangling from her hand, all the work she's done in the past half hour undone in an instant. The Valentine necklace she's been making for big sister Chelsey destroyed by a slip of the hand.

And like the necklace, Chloe comes undone. I call her to over to the couch where I sit and gather her into my lap. Her tiny body shudders against mine. She buries her face in my chest and weeps. I begin to say silly things like, "Don't cry," and "You can make it again," but she cuts me off saying, "But it took s-o-o...lo-o-ong."

Suddenly I realize that it isn't the time to try and stifle her grief. Her sadness is legitimate. It did take her a long time. She did work hard. And her project has been ruined. It's time to sympathize. So I just hold her. Tell her that I know how that feels. And I do. I'm a writer. Of course writers understand how it feels to work long and hard on something, pouring our hearts in only to have our work shattered, not by a slip of the hand, but by a rejection letter.

Usually when my work is rejected, my personal reaction is something like Chloe's-- I crumble a bit, promptly decide that I'm done with writing...obviously, I don't have what it takes. And I feel guilty for being so wimpy and not immediatly grasping onto all the good writing advice I know is true: keep writing, rejection is part of being a writer, first novels rarely get published anyway... you can write another one. All of those things are true, but at that moment, I'm not ready to hear them.

Here's the thing: it's okay to stop and grieve, just a bit, for your story that went nowhere. You can crawl onto your heavenly Father's lap and cry, "But, daddy, it took soooo long. I worked so hard." You can simply let him hold you. He does sympathize. After a bit, He'll remind you that rejections do have value, that you still have more to learn, that you should keep writing...

After a little while, Chloe calmed down. Her other sister helped her re-string the necklace, then Chloe happily designed an envelope covered with crayon-hearts in which to "wrap" it. She learned to hold onto the string of an unfinished necklace more tightly. She learned that not all hope is lost when a project falls apart. She learned that she has a mother and sister who care and love her, even when her efforts come to naught.

When you find yourself in that coming undone, but-it-took-so-long kind of place, give yourself a little time to rest in your Father's arms. Learning how much He loves you could be the best thing to come of all that rejection! And then, strengthened by His love and encouragement, climb back on your computer chair and beginning stringing words together again.