Brewing Tea

I called at a café with a fellow Congregational minister this month. I had ordered a pot of Earl Grey and the waitress duly produced it, accompanied by a small hourglass-style timer. It took a minute for the sand to pass from one compartment to the other and then, she explained, my tea would be correctly brewed. I thought the whole thing a little pretentious, but the prices were dear, so what could I expect? According to the MyEarlGrey website, the tea should brew for between 3 and 5 minutes depending on one’s preferred strength (and patience). However long we brew, most agree that sufficient time should be left for the hot water to be infused by the leaves’ flavour. This does not happen instantly, and a quick squeeze of the bag will not suffice. The other advantage of waiting a little while is that the drink begins to cool; few of us, unlike my grandmother, have throats lined with asbestos. Boiling hot water is seldom good for our innards.

Our God seems to value the virtue of patience above most others. He waited four millennia before fulfilling His messianic promise in Eden and Christ’s return calls for patience from our own generation. Indeed, Psalm 27:14 exhorts:

Wait on the Lord; be of good courage, and He shall strengthen your heart; wait, I say, on the Lord!

Waiting, watching, persevering, remaining: this is what the Lord so often calls us to do. I felt the call to ministry at the age of 12 but it was another 24 years before any church formally invited me. The best things, whether cups of Earl Grey, ministries, answered prayers or heavenly homes, tend to come to those who wait.