IN DUE TIME...

The physically challenged white 1982 Corvette sat in the yard for years. The owner, my son, had driven it happily in the past, but was too busy now with his career to spend time restoring this collector's treasure. 

Meanwhile, snow fell on the white Corvette through many winters burying it almost out of sight at times. Torrents of rain fell on it year after year; the hot sun beat upon it for many scorching summers. Little creatures scampered in and made their nests in the engine and throughout the interior with considerable destruction.

Also in the meantime there was born unto him a son who from the age of five began to dream about driving his father's handicapped white Corvette some day. Time passed—tricycle time, bicycle time, skateboard time, and a small four-wheeler time, and the boy grew to six feet at age 15. The dream kept stirring in his heart each time he looked at the beloved white Corvette.

After much pleading of the son to the father, the father conceded that due time had come to start restoring together the physically challenged white Corvette. Delighted son and patient, skillful father began to spend many hours and days of bonding time cleaning it up, replacing critter-chewed hoses and connectors—and whatever else enables a car to move. New battery, fuel pump, inflating the tired tires, then the gutting and replacement of the whole interior. 

But before the monster job of their planned total restoration, one chilly autumn day they actually put gas in the tank and got the engine started! What a day! Photo op time! Then the father said unto the boy who was now a young man, “Let's get in. You can drive down the country road!” Due time had come! This was a foretaste of what would be the fullness of time after the young man had passed driver's ed, obtained his learner's permit, and after he became of legal age to drive. This was an appetizer—proud father and his lanky son with a sparkle in his eye finally at the wheel roared down the country road!

Good things come to those who wait for God's due time. The Scriptures are full of phrases like “...it came about in due time..., God gave them their food in due time..., in due time we will reap....” Other time-specific phrases like “in the fulness of time” are scattered throughout the Bible record of events. When our eternal God who is outside of our planet time deals with His human, mortal children, He steps into our time to accomplish His will. He rolls time along at His predestined pace. God stoops to our finite perception of time because that is all we understand until we step over into the eternal dimension when the mortal becomes immortal and time as we perceive it is no more.

Often our Eternal Father makes us wait for our due time until we have reached a certain point in maturity, until the circumstances are ripe, until all things and people are in place for His will to be done. It is then accomplished by loving cooperation between the Father and His children. 

It can be a spiritually bonding time when we learn the lessons of patience in God's waiting room. God doesn't want us impatient mortals to pick unripe fruit; nevertheless He allows us our free will. If we persist in jumping the gun to do our own will, God permits us to taste the consequences, the bitterness of the premature. As the psalmist commented, “He gave them their request but sent leanness to their souls....”

It may not be to our liking to sit around in God's waiting room for His fullness of time even when waiting for God's promises to be fulfilled. God's promises have a due date on them but their shelf life is permanent. Not to worry. They are not perishable; there is no expiration date. Father knows best. There is a time and season for all things—a time to wait, and a time to taste the delicious fruits of due time.