“I’m coming! I’m coming!”

“He who testifies to these things says, “Yes I am coming soon.” Amen. Come, Lord Jesus.” Revelation 22:20

As a mother of three young kids, often times I have to prioritize which of my children I will respond to first. This issue often comes into play whenever I am getting each of my children out of their carseats after we have gotten back home from running errands or something. Usually I will start with the oldest child and then move down from there (since I know that tending to the baby will take the most time). As I’m getting my two oldest out of their carseats, many times my youngest child Ava will start to fuss and cry, at which point I will call out to her, “I’m coming, Ava, I’m coming!” As soon as I hear her fuss or call for me, everything in me wants to come pick her up and hold her, and yet somehow I’m prevented from doing so, which is a very unsettling feeling for any mother. Since I can’t get to her right away, the next best thing I can do is to communicate to her my desire to comfort her, letting her know that I’ll be there as soon as I can.

What’s odd is that I often dream about this exact dilemma – my child needing me, and not being able to get to them in time. The other day I dreamed that a group of us adults were at a waterpark with some of our children. I remember feeling nervous that I couldn’t supervise the kids well enough for them not to drown or something, and then right as I had that thought my second-born son Levi went missing. In an instant I was terrified and worried that he had somehow drowned. I remember calling out to everyone at the waterpark saying, “Where is Levi?! I can’t find him. Did he drown? Please help me!” But it seemed the nobody was taking me seriously or wanted to help. As his mother, every single fiber of my being wanted to find him and rescue him, and yet somehow, against my wishes, I couldn’t get to him, I couldn’t be there to help him. It was a very unsettling, terrifying feeling, but it resonated so well with me.

Recently, my son Levi has been thinking a lot about heaven and asking me questions about it. More than once he has asked me, “Mommy, why doesn’t Jesus come back now to get us?” And I’ve had to really think about my response to him. The Bible tells us that Jesus is coming back again soon to take us home with Him, but we don’t know exactly when that will be. In the mean time, we experience pain, heartache, and disappointment. In the mean time, we long to see Jesus face to face. We long for a world where all brokenness will be restored. So why is Jesus taking so long to come back? What is He waiting for? If He really cares and wants to be with us, then why not come back now?

Similar to a mother longing to hold her child the second he or she is in distress, but sometimes being prevented from doing so, Jesus longs even more so, to come hold us. Jesus longs so much to come to earth and take us away from our pain and heartache, and I believe the waiting hurts His heart even more than it hurts our hearts when we can’t tend to our baby’s pressing need. Love makes Him want to come back, but love also makes Him have to wait. Just as a mother tends to one child while the other child waits, Jesus is tending to the hearts of his children, as his other children wait. And just as a mother wants her child to trust her love for that child during the times of waiting, so Jesus want us to trust His love for us as we wait for Him. It’s love that makes Him hold us, but it’s also love that causes us to wait. May we trust His love in the holding and also in the waiting. And even so, “come Lord Jesus.”