But do not overlook this one fact, beloved, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance.

2 Peter 3:8-9

On any road trip with our grandsons, we hear the familiar sound from one generation to the next – “Are we there yet?”

Children don’t often have a good grasp on the concept of time and I can say that as an adult, I feel the pull and tug of time from two different perspectives, depending on the topic. Day to day, time seems to be both rushing by without enough hours in the day and at the same time there are areas in life where I am forced to wait. Those days and weeks and years are moving so slowly that I am prone to losing my patience.

For a thousand years in your sight
are but as yesterday when it is past,
or as a watch in the night

– Psalm 90:4

Peter was likely referring to this passage when he wrote the verses above to the exiled church and so it is helpful to remember that God doesn’t operate with the same linear constrictions of time that we face with our twenty-four hour days. So we can find comfort in the fact that while he will fulfill his promise to return and set all things right, He is patiently at work in the lives of men and women, “not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance.”

It is easy to lose sight of the big picture as we move through our lives, but is there anything more important than someone coming to a point of sincere repentance? Will anything else matter in the end?

All of us are waiting for the promised return of Christ and most of us are waiting to see God move in our lives and the lives of those closest to us. So let’s remember that God is at work whether we can easily see it or not.

“being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus” (Philippians 1:6).