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Does life seem just too hard to endure sometimes? Let’s face it, we live in a sin-cursed world and both in our personal lives and in our society, we see trouble of all kinds. I find myself sometimes just sighing and shaking my head and wondering what’s going to happen next. Can it possibly get worse? Life is just hard for so many people.
But I’m encouraged by what Jesus told his disciples on the night before he died. Things looked pretty bad to them, too, you know. The man they had committed their lives to was not bringing about the political change that they expected. They thought he would overthrow Rome, they would have their country back to themselves, Jesus would be King and of course, they would be his right-hand men. Listen to what Jesus told them, from John 16:16-19:
Jesus went on to say, “In a little while you will see me no more, and then after a little while you will see me.” At this, some of his disciples said to one another, “What does he mean by saying, ‘In a little while you will see me no more, and then after a little while you will see me,’ and ‘Because I am going to the Father’?” They kept asking, “What does he mean by ‘a little while’? We don’t understand what he is saying.” Jesus saw that they wanted to ask him about this, so he said to them, “Are you asking one another what I meant when I said, ‘In a little while you will see me no more, and then after a little while you will see me’?
Well, they just didn’t get it. They wanted Jesus to move on their timetable, which was NOW, and Jesus was saying “in a little while.” To them, that was not acceptable.
As I thought about this, I realized how much I am like those disciples. I so often just don’t get it! Why are things going from bad to worse? Why are so many people I know going through such deep waters? Why—no doubt the most frequent question that bombards Heaven.
But Jesus said, “In a little while.” To us, “not now” seems like eternity. But God does not measure time as we do, and in the light of eternity, we are living in “a little while,” and it won’t last forever. This phrase—in a little while—has been resonating in my head for days, and it so encourages me.