Psalm 27:14 - "Wait for the Lord; be strong and take heart and wait for the Lord.”
One of the best things about learning another language is the appreciation and new understanding it gives you for words and language in general. Being able to speak two or more languages gives you the ability to connect things in your mind that you never would have thought of otherwise.
The most common verb for “to wait” in Spanish is esperar. Esperar can also be translated as “to hope.” I remember when I first learned this, and how amazed I was. I had never much connected “hoping” to “waiting”- but it made sense. Of course they would be a pair! I think it is such a beautiful thing that waiting and hoping would be the same word.
It especially makes sense in the context of Christian faith. The Bible certainly connects these two, but somehow I didn’t see it until I read those passages in Spanish. Understanding this makes verses about waiting on the Lord come alive with double meaning. The verses below make the connection quite clear in English.
Hebrews 11:1 “Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.”
Romans 8:25 “ But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience.”
Life is full of waiting. It’s full of hoping for a better tomorrow. They can be done simultaneously, they can be one act.
No matter what happens we hope in the Lord. We wait on the Lord. Esperamos.
