Maybe Today

Bible Reading: 2 Peter 3:3-4, 8-9

After finishing their picnic lunch at a roadside park, Lawrence and Ryder walked with their parents to look at the big map on the wall next to the restrooms. “Where’s the space center on this map?” asked Lawrence.

“It’s in this town here.” Dad pointed to a dot on the map. “And here’s where we are now,” he said, pointing to another dot a few inches from the first one.

“Well, let’s get on our way,” said Mom, and soon they were back on the road.

“I hope they let me take pictures of some of the exhibits,” said Ryder a little later. “Grant would probably like to see them.”

“Yeah,” said Lawrence. “My friends would too.”

“You know what, Dad? Grant doesn’t believe the Bible,” said Ryder. “He says his grandmother did, and that she was expecting Jesus to come back to earth when she was a little girl. Now she’s dead, and Jesus still hasn’t come. Grant says it’s silly to believe He’ll ever come.”

Lawrence pressed his nose against the window. “Are we almost there?”

Dad glanced at his phone. “We have about thirty more miles to go.”

“Thirty miles!” exclaimed Lawrence. “It didn’t look that far on the map.”

“That map was drawn to scale—that means every inch represents several miles,” Mom said. “If we forget that, the distance will seem long to us even though it looked short on the map.”

Dad nodded. “It’s like that with time too. Maybe Grant doesn’t realize that on God’s scale of time it hasn’t been long since Jesus promised to return. To people, it seems like a long time ago, but from God’s perspective, it’s only been a short time. Since God is eternal, He sees time differently than we do.”

“How close are we to the space center now, Dad?” asked Ryder.

Dad chuckled. “There’s another example of how time doesn’t seem the same to everyone. I thought I had just answered that question—we’re only a few miles closer than the last time someone asked—but to you, it probably seems like a long time has passed, right?” Ryder nodded. “So don’t doubt that Jesus will come back,” said Dad. “He is patiently waiting until the right time so more people have a chance to trust in Him and be saved, including Grant. Jesus will keep His promise to return. He may even come today!”

–Barbara J. Westberg

How About You?

Do you sometimes wonder if Jesus will ever come to earth again? Do you wonder why it’s taking Him so long to fulfill His promise to return? To you, a couple thousand years seems like a very long time, but compared to eternity, it’s not long at all. Jesus will come again. He may even come today! Are you ready? (To learn more, click the “Good News!” button in the right column of this page or go to www.keysforkids.org/goodnews.)

Today’s Key Verse:
Matthew 24:42 Be alert, since you don’t know what day your Lord is coming. (CSB)

Today’s Key Thought:

Jesus is coming again