Yesterday I called my son, Ben who lives in Virginia, to check on some minor surgery he’d had on his shoulder. Emma, my almost four year old granddaughter, answers the phone which is a new thing for her to do. After she tells me about their recent trip to Disney World and all the princesses she had seen I ask Ema if we could come and see her. Very politely she says she will ask her daddy. I then hear her say to Ben, “Can my Gigi and Pop come over?” Excitedly she comes back to the phone and says to me “Yes, you can come over.” I then explain we would see her in two days, on Monday when we are planning to drive down to see her. Well, this isn’t at all what she wanted to hear. She wanted us to come right then. She was ready for us to walk into her house “now”. Waiting is not something Emma does well and she began to whine (which she does very well!). To be honest there was a strong part of me that wanted to jump in the car right that very minute but I didn’t think my absence at our Annual Meeting would go over so well! So I reassured Emma that Pop and Gigi couldn’t wait to see her and that we would be at her house in two days and would take her to the park.
My conversation with Emma got me to thinking about how instantly I want God to respond to my needs. I hate to admit it but Emma does get some of her impatience from me. If my prayers go unanswered for very long I begin to doubt that God has heard them. When I don’t feel God’s immediate presence I question God’s love and care. It is hard to keep believing in God’s goodness when I don’t see instant results from my petitions and prayers. But there’s one verse in scripture that has helped me many times in my life when God didn’t instantly show up or my prayers went unanswered for awhile. It is Jeremiah 29:11—“For surely I know the plans I have for you, says the Lord, plans for your welfare and not for harm, to give you a future with hope.” Verses twelve and thirteen also give me reassurance—“Then when you call upon me and come and pray to me, I will hear you. When you search for me, you will find me; if you seek me with all your heart.”
I know without a doubt that God loves me and that God loves you. Just as Emma knows that I love her but can’t always come when she wants me to come, each of us can rest in the assurance of God’s unfailing, unconditional love and care for us. Each of us can trust the plans that God has for us and know that God’s plans are always for our welfare and for a future with hope.
As we enter into the season of Lent the days can be dark and God’s presence hidden in this wilderness time. Down the road toward Good Friday, doubt can cloud the way. But take heart my friends. Easter is coming! No whining allowed!!