Dear Editor,

When I was a little girl, and Mum and Daddy and I would go on vacation, or drive to a distant location, about one, or one and a half hours would pass, and Daddy would hear these words from the back seat of the car:

“Daddy, are we almost there?”

Of course, Mum and Daddy had already told me where we were going, and what a new adventure awaited us at our journey’s end; but, it was the GETTING THERE that so greatly tried my “little girl” patience.

God is timeless — eternal — and doesn’t count time as we do on this earth; and, I’m now a woman of 66 years who still asks my Heavenly Father, from time to time, “Abba, are we almost there?”

His answer?

As I asked Him just this morning: “Let patience have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing.” (James 1:4).

Yes, Lord; but not just for me. I want everyone to have that which You began to share with me and teach me some time ago; I want everyone to experience the joy and the blest challenge of the GETTING THERE.

But, what is that patience that we all need as we move onward in time, even through this present virus pandemic? Simply put: patience is the capacity, habit, or fact of being patient; and, according to Webster’s Dictionary, patient is an adjective meaning 1: bearing pain or trials without complaining 2: showing self control: CALM 3: STEADFAST, PERSEVERING. According to 1 Corinthians 13:4,

“Love is patient and kind.” And, according to that which I’ve learned since I gave my life to the Lord Jesus Christ: He Himself is watching over everyone — those who are His children, and those who continue to reject Him; and, He Himself, who bore the sins of all mankind, on Calvary’s Cross, is still patiently waiting for all mankind to turn to Him and be saved from eternal death and torment.

I don’t know if this virus pandemic is God’s wake-up call to a perverse mankind, or to His Church on earth which has come to dilute His Gospel to a feel-good religion; but, in my heart, I see my Savior suffering, bleeding, and dying upon a cross for me, and for everyone in this wide world. I see Him bearing our pain and trials without complaint; I see Him as the picture of CALM and self control; and, I see Him: God’s steadfast, persevering Son, “who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.” (Hebrews 12:2).

And, in the midst of this pandemic, with so many dying, I can only pray that those dead knew Jesus as their Savior and Lord; and, that those unbelievers who remain will come to accept God’s free gift of salvation in Jesus Christ.

Truly, Jesus Himself is the blest Promise of our GETTING THERE; for “He is the Way, the Truth, and the Life; no one comes to Father God except through Him.” (John 14:6).

“For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.” (John 3:16).

Stay safe, be well, and God bless you.

Maryann Droll

Belmont