Just a little while longer.
When I say I will take a little while to get ready and get out the door, sure most would see it as an eternity.
However, I can say with full confidence that, though 5 minutes turned into 30, I still held true to my original claim.
It was only a little while.
Don’t believe me?
What if I reminded you that “a little while” is relative and is not precise or absolute in any way.
Like “soon” or “momentarily” give off a suggestion of being near yet give no definite time frame.
I love words like this!
Because my definition of a little while is most definitely different from everyone else’s, yet because it does not confirm a particular timeframe, my definition is still valid!
Whether a little while is a couple minutes or a couple days.
These blurry estimates work in my favor in most cases, until I am on the receiving end.
Ironically, I struggle with patience!
Consequently, when I hear responses like “soon” or “a little while” …
Let’s just say, I get rather stressed.
Something that I have noticed, in my experience as a Christ-follower, is that God loves using imprecise timeframes just as much as I do!
“Now the Lord had said to Abram: “Get out of your country, From your family And from your father’s house, To a land that I will show you.”
Genesis 12:1 NKJV.
“And the Lord said to Abraham, “Why did Sarah laugh, saying, ‘Shall I surely bear a child, since I am old?’ Is anything too hard for the Lord? At the appointed time I will return to you, according to the time of life, and Sarah shall have a son.””
Genesis 18:13-14 NKJV.
““But of that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father. Take heed, watch and pray; for you do not know when the time is.”
Mark 13:32-33 NKJV.
That’s when my frustration levels rise.
What if that’s the point?
When I don’t have the certainty, faith is required…
Faith is being strengthened when a promise is made without all the exact details included.
Strengthening faith is great and all…
Still, I can’t take this lightly because most of us are not just waiting for a vacation or hitting a thousand followers.
We are waiting for healing from a chronic illness and for an adoption to go through.
A waiting period so long and gut-wrenching that when hearing that it will be a little while, it triggers anger and disbelief.
Pain makes waiting much more unbearable.
We would do anything for “a little while” to feel as brief as it sounds.
What can bring light to this waiting?
Comfort is found in John 16:16-22.
““A little while, and you will not see Me; and again a little while, and you will see Me, because I go to the Father.” Then some of His disciples said among themselves, “What is this that He says to us, ‘A little while, and you will not see Me; and again a little while, and you will see Me’; and, ‘because I go to the Father’?” They said therefore, “What is this that He says, ‘A little while’? We do not know what He is saying.” Now Jesus knew that they desired to ask Him, and He said to them, “Are you inquiring among yourselves about what I said, ‘A little while, and you will not see Me; and again a little while, and you will see Me’? Most assuredly, I say to you that you will weep and lament, but the world will rejoice; and you will be sorrowful, but your sorrow will be turned into joy. A woman, when she is in labor, has sorrow because her hour has come; but as soon as she has given birth to the child, she no longer remembers the anguish, for joy that a human being has been born into the world. Therefore you now have sorrow; but I will see you again and your heart will rejoice, and your joy no one will take from you.”
John 16:16-22 NKJV.
Jesus was referring to the time when he would be in the grave and also the time after His resurrection, when He stayed with them; until He finally ascended to Heaven.
Interestingly, Jesus said “a little while” as a timeframe for both three days and forty days.
Jesus saw both of those events as lasting only a little while.
He describes this as the waiting of a woman in labor.
The painful labor marks the ending of the waiting.
The agony endures for a moment and is forgotten when she holds the promise in her arms.
The pain makes her feel like dying, yet the joy of birth will cause her to see that her labor was truly only temporary.
Today the church is pregnant with the promise and the labor pains, we will see during the tribulation…
Nevertheless, when we see the Promise coming back for us, no one can take that joy away.
Our time here, it’s only a little while.
Seems like a lifetime can last so long, yet truly it is only a blink of an eye.
God sees the sorrow you face.
Don’t lose hope!
In a little while…
Your sorrow will be turned into joy!
Photo by Josue Misael
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
