In episode three of Cardcaptor Sakura, our heroine is in a tough spot. She wants to capture the Watery Card, which nearly drowned a trainer and penguins at the local aquarium. But Kero tells hers that Watery is very strong and aggressive; the three cards she has attained so far aren’t strong enough to capture it.
Sakura’s not able to accept the certainty of this so easily. She loves love loves those penguins, and can’t bare that they might be hurt, so she brainstorms, but to know avail. And she trusts Kero’s assessment – he knows much more about the Clow Cards than she does. What can she possibly do? It’s a frustrating situation. Sakura wants to solve this problem now, but she has no solution for it.
I know how Sakura feels. I have trouble being patient sometimes as well. At work, I’m used to solving problems right away. It’s the same at home. I can take care of it, and I can take care of it right now. But sometimes, I just don’t have the proper solution at the moment – I have to wait for something to occur in the workplace, or for a person to respond. Or, I just need to wait for the moment to be right in my home life. Waiting on things outside my control is never an easy thing to do – but it usually results in a better end than if I had tackled the problem with the cards in my hand at that moment.
Sakura waits it out a bit as well. In fact, instead of just obsessing over the card, she actually goes on a date with Yukito. While on that date, Yukito mentions a couple of tidbits of information that stick with Sakura and help her formulate a plan. If Watery is so powerful and hard to capture, she’ll turn the card into a form that’s easier to catch – she’ll turn Watery into ice.
Sometimes, plans come together in the waiting, and it’s hard for me to accept that, even though I know it’s true. I have this nasty habit of trusting myself most of all; I’d rather make a decision now based on faulty information than to wait. But while I’m pretty reliable, I also fail quite often. I’m not all-knowing or always right, though I make decisions like I am.
With big decisions in life, I sometimes have to wait on God to make things known. He sometimes does so through scripture or circumstances or, like how Sakura discovers how to defeat Watery, through people. But it takes humility to wait, the belief that God knows better than I do and so waiting on him is the right answer. On those oh-so-few moments that I reflect on the past, I see this to be true. I probably should do that more, looking at my life like an episodic anime with Clow Cards of the week to capture, and seeing how God guided me through challenges.
I may do that (but I probably won’t). Still, I want to strive forward in faith, which ultimately is shown through that which gives me the ability to wait, the ability to trust in God rather than myself. It’s in each day waking up, putting myself down, and putting Christ on. And when I do that, I can trust God’s plan for Watery or whatever challenge is in my way, for better or worse, and ultimately, all for him.
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Cardcaptor Sakura can be streamed on Crunchyroll.
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