A great theologian once said that every purpose of God has a gestation period. If that's true it may also be true that such purposes also have their false labor throes when it seems the purpose is coming to pass or about to but in fact it is not. It's a false alarm, a counterfeit of the real. As when Abraham and Sarah sought to "help God out" in the birth of the promised seed. In that case Abraham initiated the false fulfillment, in other cases a situation can arise which resembles the fulfillment but is not the fulfillment. Even the false labor helps to prepare the body for the real labor in the case of a physical birth. Might that also be the case on another level in that supposed fulfillments can serve as practice runs or rehearsels for the actual. We needn't seek to bring them about but when they happen we can remember that nothing is wasted. We can also remember that waiting only intensifies the long anticipated appreciation and enjoyment of the awaited when it finally does arrive.
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