I've been working on the internet all day and still have not resolved a reservation request with an airline. I definitely need a bit of patience today. I am not very good at being patient. I am a person on the move and well, need I say any more? :)
There is a poster circulating somewhere in our world that says, "Be patient with me. God isn't finished with me yet." How true and how fortunate! As I ponder my need to work on patience in my life, it is comforting to know that God's patience with me is eternal.
Patience is most certainly part of God's Word in Sacred Scripture. The Israelites patiently and sometimes impatiently waited for the coming of our Savior. Jesus often told his apostles that they were not yet ready to hear all he had come to tell them." They needed a bit of patience. It is written in the Gospel that Mary often pondered life in her heart, somehow patiently awaiting God's guidance and help.
The three days after Jesus' death must have been a terrible time of waiting. The terrible thing is not that it was only three days, but that those who mourned did not know that it would be only three days until they would hear the words "He is not here. He is Risen!" Sometimes that unsettles me. I know many who miss loved ones who have died and they try to work through all the stages of grief in their lives. I know that they would love to see their loved one again and they may need to wait years instead of three days. Yet, that is just the point, isn't it? THEY WILL! They WILL see them again. We say it every Sunday: " . . . and I believe in the resurrection of the dead . . . "
In God's good time, my friends, in God's time we will see our loved ones again and be with them forever. The need for patience won't be nagging at us anymore. We will have everything and everyone we could ever need. And with a chuckle and a twinkle in his eye, when Christ is asked why it only took him three days to rise again, he may answer us "Because I was so eager to give you hope and peace and love for all time, that I just couldn't wait!" Perhaps he was a bit, errr... impatient?
There is a poster circulating somewhere in our world that says, "Be patient with me. God isn't finished with me yet." How true and how fortunate! As I ponder my need to work on patience in my life, it is comforting to know that God's patience with me is eternal.
Patience is most certainly part of God's Word in Sacred Scripture. The Israelites patiently and sometimes impatiently waited for the coming of our Savior. Jesus often told his apostles that they were not yet ready to hear all he had come to tell them." They needed a bit of patience. It is written in the Gospel that Mary often pondered life in her heart, somehow patiently awaiting God's guidance and help.
The three days after Jesus' death must have been a terrible time of waiting. The terrible thing is not that it was only three days, but that those who mourned did not know that it would be only three days until they would hear the words "He is not here. He is Risen!" Sometimes that unsettles me. I know many who miss loved ones who have died and they try to work through all the stages of grief in their lives. I know that they would love to see their loved one again and they may need to wait years instead of three days. Yet, that is just the point, isn't it? THEY WILL! They WILL see them again. We say it every Sunday: " . . . and I believe in the resurrection of the dead . . . "
In God's good time, my friends, in God's time we will see our loved ones again and be with them forever. The need for patience won't be nagging at us anymore. We will have everything and everyone we could ever need. And with a chuckle and a twinkle in his eye, when Christ is asked why it only took him three days to rise again, he may answer us "Because I was so eager to give you hope and peace and love for all time, that I just couldn't wait!" Perhaps he was a bit, errr... impatient?