Are we there yet, God?
By Jessica Brodie
The wind whipped at my hair as I leaned forward in the bucket backseat of my parents’ Pinto. I’d been reading, caught up in some magical place, and a shiver of insecurity raced through me as I realized I had no idea where we were or how long we had until we reached our destination.
“We’ll be there soon, Jessica,” came my mother’s comforting voice.
And so I nosed back into the paperback in my seven-year-old hands. Just be. We’d arrive, just as we always did. I could sit back and relax, safe. Reassured.
Now I have kids of my own, and it’s just the same. Not yet, I tell them. Soon. They, too, sit back, at peace with the knowledge that all is well and would always be well … in time.
Yet why, as we navigate our days with God at the wheel, do we not always allow ourselves that same sort of peace and safe reassurance that all will be as God wills it, perfectly in His time? The right time—just as He has planned?
Why, when we claim to be followers of Christ and children of the living God, do we worry and fret and seek control over moments and situations as though we’re the ones at the wheel? We have His assurances throughout Scripture, know His promises and know what we need to do, and yet we’re like little kids asking “Are we there yet?” We grow impatient when things take “too long” and wonder how long we will have to wait, instead of settling our minds and hearts and knowing God’s got this and we’ll be just fine.
In our shift from childhood to adulthood, it’s as if we’ve forgotten the most beautiful gift of being young: that worry-free, carefree ease of resting safe in the arms of our parents who love us.
God is that parent. He’s the mom or dad in the driver’s seat calming our impatience and worry with a reminder that He’s in charge and He’s got it all taken care of. We don’t need to fret about when or where or how. We can just rest in the knowledge that “it will be as it should be” whenever the time is right.
The apostle Peter reminds us, “With the Lord a single day is like a thousand years and a thousand years are like a single day. The Lord isn’t slow to keep his promise” (2 Peter 3:8-9).
No matter the question—“When, Lord, will you….?” “How long until…?” “Will you ever…?”—deep down we know the answer.
Soon. In His perfect time.