Remember family vacations when you were little and asking, “are we there yet?” A lot of times it may have been just a few hours into the trip before asking that question. There are times even as an adult I find myself asking that question on trips whether on an airplane or in a car.
I ask God that question sometimes when I am going through trials and I know He is trying to grow my faith. There are times I get down and depressed or get aggravated that things aren’t going fast enough.
In the Bible story of Jacob and Rachel, we see Jacob agreeing to work seven years in order to gain Rachel’s hand in marriage. Then her father tricked Jacob and gave him Rachel’s sister, Leah, and told Jacob he had to work seven more years to get the love of his life, Rachel. Although Jacob was very patient in order to get the wife he loved, I’m sure there were times he asked “are we there yet?”
When Rachel and Jacob were finally married, Rachel longed to be a mother but she was not able to bear children right away. She was very jealous of her sister, Leah, who was giving birth to Jacob’s children. Rachel became so jealous that she decided to take matters into her own hands and had her maidservant become a surrogate for her so she could become a mother.
Rachel did not wait on the Lord. Rachel said “are we there yet, Lord?” but she didn’t wait on His answer. However, eventually God did bless Rachel and Jacob with several children, one of whom would become Jacob’s favorite child, Joseph.
Unfortunately, we see ourselves doing this today. We may ask God, “is it time yet?” or “are we there yet?” and He doesn’t answer fast enough so we decide to take matters into our own hands. And most of the time, we end up making a mess of everything.
It’s important to just sit back and enjoy the journey and let God drive us to the destination – just like when we were kids and our parents were taking us to the Grand Canyon. God is good and I imagine when His son, who is sitting at His right hand, looks down on this wretched world, He, too, is asking God, “Are we there yet?” At any moment, God can answer “yes, go get them.” Will YOU be ready? Or will you say, “I didn’t think we were there yet?”
