Howard discusses several different scenarios in which women, in particular, commonly find themselves waiting for an indefinite period of time: waiting for a husband, for a child, for healing, for a home, and for a “prodigal” loved one. In each chapter, besides sharing stories from her own and others’ lives, Howard dwells on a scriptural example of a type of waiting and then suggests ways in which a given type serves as an emblem of our common longing for Christ. She shows how all our waiting ultimately causes us to feel less at home in this world as we yearn toward our eternal home.

A book like this could easily come off as trite. Howard never glosses over the pain of waiting, however, or the fact that we might never receive earthly fulfillment of our longings. I also appreciated her point that, “…[A] persistent longing does not mean that you are indulging in sinful discontentment.” Certainly, someone facing years of undesired singleness, infertility, or chronic illness may face temptations to bitterness and doubt. But grief and contentment are not incompatible—Hannah poured out her sorrow before the Lord, and we are invited to do the same in faith.

One of the things I appreciated so much was the community/churchly orientation of this book. Howard consistently emphasizes that women need the encouragement of other women at different stages of life, who are facing or who have undergone different seasons of waiting. The nature of that waiting doesn’t have to be identical in order for women to point one another to Christ. As she writes in a convicting passage, “Someone who lives with unmet desires is uniquely able to identify with and comfort others who live with unmet desires, even if their longings are of a different sort. If we wait to reach out to others from a position of fullness, we will never do it. If, on the other hand, we love others out of our own emptiness, we will—paradoxically—find we have an abundance of love to give.”

One of the purposes of waiting is, of course, our personal sanctification. But Howard also discusses how seasons of waiting are opportunities to embody the gospel story and to portray a kingdom parable before the world and the church. That is, waiting is not just for our own spiritual benefit. Stories of waiting deepen our affection for Christ and refine our appetite for the joys of eternity. This invites believers to share their stories with one another, and to give a reason for their hope to their unbelieving neighbors. Seasons of waiting, then—as painful as they are, and as little as we desire them in themselves—should free us to love our Savior and one another more deeply than we could do otherwise.

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