Remember road trips? We have done a few of those in the last month. Inevitably our kids ask within the first 30 minutes the all too famous question, "Are we there yet?"
This happened on our last trip to California. Lauren asked this about 20 minutes into our 5 hour drive. I thought to myself how different a child's perception is of time. Lauren knows that her cousin Charlotte's house is far away. So after 20 minutes, she figured it had been a long time and surely we must be close.
Near the end of our trip, in what was not the middle of the night, Lauren was tired of driving. She does not sleep well in the car and it was near 11 p.m. She was just tired. Finally, about 20 miles from our destination, Lauren said, "Mom, this is too long. I want to go to bed. Let's just go home. It is too far to Charby's house."
I had a pretty vivid dream the other night about living in California and trying to get home from an outing. But the freeways were shut down and there was rioting in the streets. There was an enormous mushroom shaped cloud of smoke the size of a city over the city across the bay from where I was. It felt like the end of world.
I woke up thinking I better get my 72 hour emergency kit updated for kids clothes and put it in my car, just in case I am somewhere I can't get home when a disaster strikes. The more I have thought about this dream, the more I have found myself asking, "Are we there yet? Is it time for the second coming yet?"
Sometimes, I feel just like Lauren in those first minutes. It has been a long time, we must be near. The world is so wicked, we must be close. But then maybe we are only 20 minutes into this 5 hour ride. I hope not. I hope we are closer. Somehow I think whenever that day comes, whoever is alive to see it will feel like Lauren did late that night. "I am tired. I am ready to rest. Let's just go home." The real trick will be enduring then.
Maybe that is why the Lord gives us so many personal 11th hour trials. You know the ones where you are praying to help and help doesn't come till the last second possible when it seems like all is lost. Maybe he is building our endurance so that in that time before His coming we will be able to hold on a little long and wait for the peace that only He will be able to usher in.
