5:30 PM…
We’re at the park early to get a good spot for the fireworks…
The sky won’t be dark for another 4 and a half hours…
Another 270 minutes…
Another 16,200 seconds.
Can’t hurry sunset.
Guess we’ll wait.
What will we do while we wait?
Set up the chairs…
Get out the food…
Eat some of the food…
Eat more food…
Wow. An hour has passed…
Three and half more hours…
210 more minutes…
12,600 seconds…
What else can we do while we wait?
The cry of all little kids passes through my mind…
“I’m bored!”
But looking around I notice that not one kid echoes my refrain…
In front of me a four-year-old chases her brother…
He’s just learning how to walk…
He falls (frequently)
Gets back up (every time).
And toddles away (giggling)
A little further out… a father and his sons play catch with a football…
Nearby… a group of teens with Frisbees forms a circle…
Launching the Frisbees toward each other…
Running…
Laughing…
Diving to catch them…
Their circle dissolving in chaos…
No one echoes my cry of “I’m bored!”
They knew the truth…
You can’t hurry sunset.
You can’t hurry fireworks that wait for a darkened sky…
They came prepared to be busy while they waited.
Fireworks aren’t the only thing we have to wait for…
Sometimes God says, “Wait”…
We can’t hurry God…
But what does He want us to do while we wait?
To prepare ourselves?
…be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect. Matthew 24:44
To love Him?
Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ Mark 12:30
To share His love with everybody?
‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ Mark 12:31
Does God want us to sit and rest and count the seconds while we wait?
Or does He want us to be busy?
Busy joining Him in His mission to redeem the world?
And he said to them, “Go into all the world and proclaim the gospel to the whole creation. Mark 16:15
What are the words we most want to hear from God?
Are they “well rested”?
Or are they…
… ‘Well done, good and faithful servant!’ Matthew 25:23
