I love Blue Jays, and for many years they have frequented my backyard in search of peanuts—peanuts that I willingly toss out whenever they show up and loudly announce their arrival. They understand that peanuts will magically appear at the drop of a hat when they call for them, and yes, I’m just the sucker who races to the patio door and throws a handful onto my deck.

This morning, as I was groggily lying in bed at 5 AM, the shrill squawk of a Blue Jay hit my ears from the vicinity of my backyard. “Sorry buddy,” I remarked, “the peanut parlour is not open yet. Come back at 8.” When I finally did get up to make coffee, my little buddy showed up again, and this time he’s perched on the back of a deck chair, not five feet from the door, or peanut portal, as he seems to believe. “Okay, okay, your blue royal highness, I’m coming.”

Tossing peanuts outside, he drops from the chair to the deck and bounces over. Snatching a peanut, I can just about hear his rebuttal to me, “Well, it’s about time, Mack!” Off he goes into a small oak tree to crack into the nut. Gobbling down the two peanuts inside, he comes back for more—a routine that can go on for hours as long as I keep the peanuts flowing. It’s funny, because even now as I type these words, the same Jay showed up again and grabbed his ‘fast food’ to go.

This got me to thinking. Is there any difference between a Blue Jay demanding a peanut and me crying out to God for a divine handout and a speedy answer to prayer? The difference, I decided, is that when I/we call out to God, the answers don’t always come as quickly as a peanut through the peanut passageway. Sometimes God acts quickly, and sometimes He doesn’t. And sometimes it really hurts when God remains silent and seemingly doesn’t respond to our requests with the expediency that we feel we deserve.

I found this verse from Ecclesiastes, and I believe it’s fitting for those times when God doesn’t toss us immediate answers to our prayer requests—that His plan is always perfect for our lives as things fall into place exactly when and how He wants them too: “Yet God made everything beautiful for its own time. He has planted eternity in the human heart, but even so, people cannot see the whole scope of God’s work from beginning to end.” (Ecclesiastes 3: 11 NLT)

God may take a while to answer our calls, and sometimes months, years, and even decades might pass before an answer comes. I know from experience that waiting is hard when prayers go unchecked. I would far prefer that God take care of my prayers just as quickly as I throw peanuts to the jays. Still, I take great comfort in knowing that God will never leave us or forsake us. He hears your prayers and mine, and He will always answer at just the right time.

Paul Smyth