See the Lord while He may be found, call upon Him while He is near; let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts; let him return to the Lord, that He may mercy on him, and to our God, for He will abundantly pardon. For My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways My ways, says the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways and My thoughts than your thoughts.
Isaiah 55:6-9
I was recently doing a baptism for a one-year-old child. This young boy had an older brother, about age three. While we were baptizing the one-year-old, the three-year-old was wandering around the baptism area, occasionally clinging to his mother, who was also trying to keep the one-year-old calm. When it came time to walk around the baptismal font, the mother gave the three-year-old a candle to hold (whoever thought this was a good idea, to give very little kids lit candles to hold and hope they don’t burn anyone, thankfully he didn’t). As we were about to finish the service, this little kid had had enough. He said to his mom “I want my snack!” She said, “Just wait five minutes, the service is almost over.” (Someday, maybe I’ll write some reflections on the frustrations and bloopers of baptisms.) And this comment spawned a serious thought which I will share in today’s reflection.
Three-year-olds do not have a concept of time. To tell a three-year-old to wait five minutes, they don’t have a reference for understanding how long that interval of time is. A minute might go by and they’ll say “okay, it is time yet?” Adults have a reference when it comes to time. When you take your car to the mechanic and he says “it will be a couple of hours,” we understand what that means. We walk to some place and get some food, or bring a good book to read. The time passes, we don’t check our watches every two minutes, we know that many minutes will need to pass before we get our car back.
In comparison to God, we are like the three-year-old. Imagine this, God is our Father, and we are the little children. We ask God for our “snack.” We want the thing that will bring us joy. For some of us reading that message, our “joy” represents a significant need. Maybe our spouse has passed away, and we want our spouse back, and God says “It will just be a little while.” Maybe we have a significant illness, and we just want our health back, we want the life we had to resume, free of sickness. And God says, “Just wait a little while.” And like the three-year-old, we don’t have any reference when it comes to God’s time. Because God doesn’t measure time in weeks, months or years. He measures it in terms of eternity, infinity, and none of us has a concept of that. His time and our time move differently, just like His thoughts and His ways are different than our thoughts and our ways. My dad passed away twelve years ago this month, and it will be five years for my mom this August. Perhaps, for their souls, it has only been a second, whereas for mine, it has been many years. Maybe when we are reunited, it will feel like no time has gone by, for me or for them. This is like when we don’t talk to someone for a long time, and then we pick up the phone and start a conversation, and it feels like we just spoke yesterday. I believe this is how God works. I don’t completely understand it, but I believe it.
When we measure our lives, whether they are good or bad, against the span of eternity, our lives are comparatively “nothing.” Because life is what we know, and eternal life is what we seek to understand, when something goes wrong in life, with what we know, we understandably are stressed, distressed, frustrated, angry, even depressed. That little three-year-old knew what he wanted, he was hungry (or bored) and he wanted a snack. His mom might have even wanted to give it to him, but she knew the time wasn’t right. She didn’t withhold what he wanted because she was mean. What he wanted didn’t fit the context of what she wanted, or what she thought she could do. The little boy wouldn’t have understood that. He internally was disappointed. Thankfully, he didn’t scream or object. He did question her again, after a minute, “can I have my snack now?” and she said, “no, there are still four minutes left.” Thankfully, the service ended and he got his snack. But what if he had asked at the beginning, and had to wait an entire hour, he might have thrown a tantrum, it might have gotten ugly. And so it goes with our lives. When things happen and we are older, we may understand, there isn’t much more time left. But when we are younger, we wonder why so long, why can’t we have what we want, especially when it seems reasonable. Good health for a young person seems like a reasonable request.
God’s ways and our ways, His thoughts and our thoughts, our concept of time (months and years) and His concept of time (eternity) are different. Faith is accepting these differences, and accepting that we won’t necessarily understand His ways, but we will be faithful to them.
I can’t tell you how many times I have told God “I want my snack” and when I don’t get it, I become like a petulant three-year-old and lash out at God, demanding what I think I rightfully deserve. I know there are many people reading this message today who have suffered loss—either loss of a spouse, loss of health, loss of peace of mind, loss of a job or any of the other myriad of losses that are part of life. I know there are people who are struggling with the gulf between how we wanted life to go and how it is actually going. My encouragement is two-fold. Number one, keep walking, don’t stop, even if the road is hard and makes no sense. Number two, if we really believe in God, and heaven, and eternal life, (the more we seek to understand these things) we will come to understand that this life is transient, temporary. Even if we have the most difficult life, it is a nothing in the span of eternity. “I want my snack” when it comes to many things in my own life, little things that I think are reasonable for me to have. Why hasn’t God given me these things? I don’t know. Do I get frustrated with Him? Yes, often actually. But I still show up, if not in mind, at least in body. Faith motivates me to do that. And the thought that one day I’ll stand in front of God and tell Him “I followed Your ways, even though they were not my ways, and I hope that is enough to merit entrance into Your heavenly Kingdom.”
I waited patiently for the Lord; He inclined to me and heard my cry. He drew me up from the desolate pit, out of the miry bog, and set my feet upon a rock, making my steps secure. He put a new song in my mouth, a song of praise to our God. Many will see and fear, and put their trust in the Lord. Blessed is the man who makes the Lord his trust, who does not turn to the proud, to those who go astray after false gods! Thou hast multiplied, O Lord my god, Thy wondrous deeds and Thy thoughts toward us; none can compare with Thee! Were I to proclaim and tell of them they would be more than can be numbered. Sacrifice and offering Thou dost not desire; but Thou hast given me an open ear. Burnt offering and sin offering Thou hast not required. Then I said, “Lo, I come; in the roll of the book it is written of me; I delight to do Thy will, O my god; Thy law is within my heart.” I have told the glad news of deliverance in the great congregation; lo, I have no restrained my lips, as Thou knowest, O Lord. I have not hid Thy saving help within my heart, I have spoken of Thy faithfulness and Thy salvation; I have not concealed Thy steadfast love and Thy faithfulness from the great congregation. Do not Thou, O Lord, withhold Thy mercy from me, let Thy steadfast love and Thy faithfulness ever preserve me! For evils have encompassed me without number; my iniquities have overtaken me; till I cannot see. They are more than the hairs of my head; my heart fails me. Be pleased, O Lord, to deliver me! O Lord, make haste to help me! Let them be put to shame and confusion altogether who seek to snatch away my life; let them be turned back and brought to dishonor who desire my hurt! Let them be appalled because of their shame who say to me, “Aha, Aha!” But may all who seek Thee rejoice and be glad in thee; may those who love Thy salvation say continually, “Great is the Lord!” As for me, I am poor and needy; but the Lord takes thought for me. Thou art my help and my deliverer; do not tarry, O my God! Psalm 40
Keep walking. In the span of eternity, it will only be a few minutes before you get your snack.
