There was what I call a “Jesus Sky” as I drove in to work this morning. You probably have seen one. From a small breaking, the circle of the sun shines brightly through billowing clouds, and a just few feet down from the sun are smaller openings with long misty rays reaching for the earth. When I was little, I would pretend I could see Jesus floating down on one of the rays, coming back to get us. This morning, I have to admit, with expectant ears, I longed to hear the trumpet blast.

Not that twenty-five is “old,” but the older I get the more I realize that life is never going to have a long enough season of “good.” The bad times may always outweigh the good times, and even in the serene times there may always be something bad looming in the shadows. There is a song that begins by saying, “Wonderful is what I perceived this life to be, pain and problem free, but over time I found reality, and through it all I see You’re the only one who gets me.” I think I lived many years expecting that because Jesus was in my life turning all things into good that everything WOULD be good. I think I expected that I would never have to wait – never have to trust with longing heart to see Him come through. Why should I if He’s always with me, right?

Now I see that He doesn’t really work that way. He’s not about me; I’m supposed to be about Him. Don’t get me wrong; He loves us with a passionate love. Just like the song above says, “You’re the only one who gets me;” He is the only one who gets us, who loves us, who created us, who causes us to have hope for tomorrow. His hand reaches in to our inner places and heals the hurts, the pains, the rejection, and the disappointments so that in their place He can set up his hope and his love.

But that’s just it. He heals us, but the hope is still being projected – like a movie projected onto a wall. There will be times when I feel like God is projecting and projecting, but will never deliver. There will be times when I feel like I have no more tears to cry. There will be times when I am so angry with Him I wonder if my hip is going to go out of place like Jacob’s. There will be times when He seems so far away I will wonder if I could ever touch Him in the first place.

But the hope is always projected – like Noah’s rainbow in the sky. Jesus is coming. It may be that in my eyes it’s taking forever. It may be that in my eyes it would be easier for Him to just take us up with him – I wouldn’t mind having a cup of coffee with Paul this afternoon, how about you?

But instead we wait. With baited breath we wait. Holding fast to the promise that he said, “Behold, I am coming soon! My reward is with me, and I will give to everyone according to what he has done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last, the Beginning and the End” (Revelation 22:12). So do not be weary in doing good! Do not give up on clinging to His promise! One day Jesus really will be coming to get us – to take us home, to be with him. We are strangers on this earth, but one day we will be friends. Hold fast. Don’t give up. Trust. Believe.