Soon, just a little while longer

My favorite season of the year is summer.  Maybe that is because my birthday is in July, or that school is out, or even because of fond childhood memories of visiting Grandma and Grandpa on the farm in Eastern Washington.  Each year I would impatiently be focused on getting through with school and trekking out west the 3000 miles from Virginia to Washington.   My mom taught me that Spokane, Washington was God’s country and that is where I wanted to be.

At other times in my life I remember being impatient and complaining that time was going too slowly.  My mom would comfort with the words—“Soon, just a little while longer.”  Somehow she helped me wait, and sure enough the treasured event would happen. 

As a young mother I thought I’d never get through diapers, potty training, discipline, all the dishes and laundry. Keeping one-step ahead of the next disaster—spilled milk, gashes in heads, shopping for groceries with rambunctious toddlers, and on and on, was exhausting.   To keep going I would imagine my children as adults and daydream about each one as a productive member of society.  At eighteen, with God’s help, each one was ready to move away from home.

Our daughter’s college experience revealed she had inherited my impatient gene.  She would call home and let me know that she would be quitting college.  Usually she had a paper due, or it was mid term, or have some other major thing she needed to work on.  I would ask her if she could just stick it out for two more weeks and then we would reassess.  After two weeks the hurdle had been leapt over and she thought she would finish the term.  Not surprisingly then after she had a test coming up, a paper due, or some other obstacle she would call home and say again that she would be dropping out of college.  I’d suggest that she try it for two more weeks and then after two weeks she was fine again.  So while staying in college two weeks at a time she was able to graduate and is now a very successful group manager, wife, and mother.

God is patient not wanting any to perish so I am learning to wait.  Now, as I await the next thing, Jesus comforts me with His words in Revelation—“Yes, I am coming soon.”  Come quickly Lord Jesus.  Not my will but Your perfect will be done. 

My heart leaps with joy

At the thought of His coming.

Jesus, the long awaited One.