Trusting the Return

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My son has always loved “little things.”

When he was 6 months old, we took him to an aquarium. There were endless colorful fish and other massive underwater creatures to look at – giant stingrays, sharks, turtles – the gang was all there.

However, my son was uninterested in all of these so-called large or colorful aquatic creatures. Instead, what caught his eye was a tiny water-colored fish that kept zigzagging through the huge ones.

My husband and I were dumbfounded.

The only reason that we were able to keep up with what he was looking at was by watching which way his head wiggled. If this little fish zoomed out of my son’s view for even a second, he patiently waited for it to return as he stared at the side of the glass from which it had disappeared.

It was after this adventure that I, as a parent, learned precisely what the objective permanence milestone is.

According to the What to Expect blog, “Objective permanence is an important cognitive milestone reached when your baby begins to understand that a toy, parent, or other familiar person or item still exists even if he can’t see it.”

The milestone enables babies to recognize and understand that these things are still present or going to return to them, even if they cannot see them for a moment.

This lesson from my little one reminded me of something we all, as believers, share. Just as my little guy was waiting for that fish to return (and knew it would somehow), we are waiting for the greatest return of all time – the return of Christ.

For modern-day believers, numerous prophecies in the Bible point us to His return. But I can’t help but wonder what those 11 faithful remaining disciples must have felt as they watched Jesus in his ministry in real time.

In John 14:3-4, Jesus told them,

If I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself, that where I am, there you may be also. And you know the way where I am going.

These faithful men had watched him heal the blind, save the sick, and thoroughly shake up the political system of their day. Yet, now, before He had even died, Jesus was telling them that He was going to come back?

I can’t imagine how confusing that must have been for them.

Following His ascension, these remaining disciples spent the rest of their lives sharing with the world the story of Christ – no matter what that meant for them.

And it meant that there would be hard, troubling days filled with pain and suffering. The majority of these men were either brutally murdered, crucified, burned to death, or, at a minimum, tortured for their dedication to following Jesus.

I’m sure they wondered if He, their faithful friend, would come back for them during their lifetime and save them from these persecutions. I’m curious to know whether they ever questioned what they had chosen to do with their lives.

Yet, if they did, they never wavered.

They never gave up.

They didn’t stop sharing the gospel.

They were set on sharing about their friend’s life, death, resurrection, and return, for they knew how important the calling they were given was.

Fast forward to us today.

Those same men, the ones who were faithful to follow Him to the end of their lives – on both good and excruciating days – left behind God-ordained writings so that we could know the real Jesus, just as they did, and what was to come.

But sometimes, life is just too hard to believe that a God who loved us would let the persecutions or heartaches happen. In grief, sickness, strife, and struggles, it can be hard for us to believe in what we cannot physically see. In these moments, it would be easy to walk away from our faith.

In the challenging moments of life, we may think that He isn’t coming back or isn’t present because of the chaos in our lives, but that isn’t true. Instead, He is always there, and He will never leave us nor forsake us (Deuteronomy 31:8).

Better yet, just as Jesus told the disciples, He is coming back – sooner now than ever.

And just as my son waited for the fish to make another loop, we, as believers, are waiting for the most magnificent return of all time.

And behold, I am coming quickly. Blessed is he who heeds the words of the prophecy of this book (Revelation 22:7).

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