Weekly Proverb 04

Hope deferred, heart's diseased; longing fulfilled, life's full

Prov 13:12 Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but a longing fulfilled is a tree of life
This is a beautifully poignant observational proverb. The first part provides a balancing warning to the ‘Little by little’ principle of 13:11. The proverb itself is balanced with a contrast strikingly describing the sadness of disappointment and the joy of a longing fulfilled.

Christmas has come and Jack, an orphan who hoped against hope to get a real football this year, despite past disappointments, is holding back the tears. On the other side of town Ned, the same age, is jumping for joy after tearing the paper from the football kit he has plagued his parents for since September. In the same street lives Arthur. He has not had a visit from his son in Scotland for 20 years. There was a card saying he would come if he could, but he has not arrived. Arthur is sick at heart. At the local hospital Karl and Melanie hug each other weeping tears of joy as after 16 long years they have finally been blessed with a little girl, even though doctors had given up hope of them conceiving. And in church, Ted and Rachel have mixed feelings. Their hearts are sick because eldest son Tim, now at university, has made no profession of faith, yet they have found their teenage daughter Beth’s recent baptism like a tree of life.

The hope deferred is not necessarily one that will not be fulfilled but its drawn out nature makes the heart sick with longing. Abraham and Sarah knew most about the hope deferred but also the longing fulfilled with Isaac's miraculous birth. Christ eagerly desired to eat the Passover before the cross and eventually did.

If we are believers, we know that in the new Jerusalem, the tree of life is there for us. Meanwhile as we wait we are often sick at heart.