When I was a boy, my mom’s “little whiles” felt like forever, especially when it involved going for an ice cream cone.

As I grew old, time slipped past me like I was standing still … “is it July already?”

Ordinarily, when we use the term, “a little while,” people think minutes or, at most, a few hours.

But what does “a little while” mean to a God who dwells outside time and space?

Earthly time is relative.

Is time fixed? Heart pounding seconds strapped into Magic Mountain’s “Full Throttle” 160-foot looping coaster literally scream by and never seem to last long enough.

Minutes spent in a dentist’s chair crawl along interminably and cannot end soon enough.

What is he talking about?

So is it any wonder that we humans have trouble relating to God when it comes to concepts of time — we are space and time bound, and He is boundless in every conceivable direction.

This produced a cognitive mismatch that frustrated Jesus’ followers no end. As written in John 16:18: “What is this that He says, ‘A little while’? We do not know what He is talking about.”

In John 7:33, Jesus had previously said, “For a little while longer I am going to be with you, and then I am going to Him who sent Me. You will seek Me and will not find Me; and where I am, you cannot come.”

His followers would have been thinking in terms of minutes or hours in an earthly context; Jesus was referring to many years hence and to distant heavenly places.

On another occasion, in John 12:35-26, Jesus again spoke mysterious words:

“So, Jesus said to them, ‘For a little while longer the Light is among you. Walk while you have the Light, so that darkness will not overtake you; also, the one who walks in the darkness does not know where he is going. While you have the Light, believe in the Light, so that you may become sons of Light.’”

Jesus was warning His listeners that they will only have Him physically in their company for a little while longer, then He will disappear from their sight.

He spoke of Himself as the Light of the world and that it is every man’s personal responsibility to embrace (believe) Him while there is still time (a little while).

It is a solemn thought that there is such a thing as running out of time to believe and be saved. 

Our time “in the sun” is shorter than we think.

As written in James 4:13-15, “Come now, you who say, ‘Today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a city and spend a year there and engage in business and make a profit.’ Yet you do not know what your life will be like tomorrow. For you are just a vapor that appears for a little while and then vanishes away. Instead, you ought to say, ‘If the Lord wills, we will live and also do this or that.’”

Ouch. With those words, the Apostle James puts us squarely in our place. We are a vapor appearing briefly, then, poof, gone.

Our “little while” on this Earth could end in the blink of an eye, so we must live in the light of God’s sovereign place in everything we do. He should be the center of our universe, not us.

The time for trouble is also limited.

As shared in 1 Peter 1:6-7, “In this you greatly rejoice, even though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been distressed by various trials, so that the proof of your faith, being more precious than gold which perishes though tested by fire, may be found to result in praise, glory, and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ.”

Whoever said, “Life is one damn thing after another” (Mark Twain?) was on to something. In John 16:33, Jesus said, “In the world you have tribulation, but take courage; I have overcome the world.”

Jesus is promising that for believers, their season of trouble will end “in a little while,” but not before we are tested and proofed.

Meantime we have a part to play in the drama.

As written in 1 Peter 5:9-11, “So resist him, firm in your faith, knowing that the same experiences of suffering are being accomplished by your brothers and sisters who are in the world. After you have suffered for a little while, the God of all grace, who called you to His eternal glory in Christ, will Himself perfect, confirm, strengthen and establish you.”

So don’t expect to be swept up to Heaven on a bed of ease.

How About You?

So, next time you get impatient with God as he seems to be “delaying” an answer to prayer, remember believer, you are on His “little while” schedule and not your own.

His cosmic wristwatch has a second hand that passes a thousand years with each tick.

4-1-1

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