In the 2004 movie “The Terminal,” Victor, an Eastern European immigrant,played by Tom Hanks, is on a date with a flight attendant Amelia, played by Catherine Zeta-Jones. The date is at Victor’s “home,” the JFK airport.

Viktor carries with him, always, a peanut can. Amelia asks him what is inside the can. Viktor says, "Jazz." Viktor opens the can and takes out a group photograph of several old jazz greats. He tells Amelia that his father saw that photograph in a newspaper and determined that he would get the signatures of all the men in the photograph. His father wrote to all of them and asked for autographs, "And then, he wait. He wait a month, a week, a year. My father wait forty year. And they all write names. One by one."

Victor, slowly, takes out each card and signatures. "They all write names and send them to my father. All, but not one. Benny Goldson. My father die before Benny Goldson write his name and send to my father. So I make him promise, I keep promise. I promise I will go New York, find Benny Goldson, get him write name to put in can."

Amelia, amazed at Viktor's persistence, asks, "So you've been living here all this time so you could do this for your father?" Viktor, rather, explains, "Maybe he do for me. You say you are waiting for something? We all wait." Amelia asks Victor, "What are you waiting for?" He replies, “You. I wait for you."

The writer of Ecclesiastes, in 2.8 (ESV), says: "The patient in spirit is better than the proud in spirit." Patiently waiting is an act of humbleness.

We all wait for something. And, like Victor, to whom Amelia was a surprise, in patiently waiting, life offers good surprises we did not even know we were waiting for. After all, what is worth having is worth waiting for. Right?