Yes, I write about putting patience pants on…a lot! And I talk about it…a lot. Even last night I was talking to a precious friend about how often patience pants feel very uncomfortable, like they are a too tight pair of horrible plaid, tight, scratchy pants that just make me grumpy and want to run for my freeing, comfy yoga pants (and now I am singing “yoga pants” by Tim Hawkins). It seems like more and more in my life and the lives of those friends around me, we are having to put our patience pants on every… single… day. And this whole time I have always thought of patience as a virtue, something that God wants me to learn. I figured maybe it’s a way to slow me down in our crazy fast paced world. Maybe it’s a way to teach me to stop and think before I speak (ever feel like the disciple Peter, the foot in mouth disciple? Yeah me neither…NOT! I totally relate to that man!). There are oh so many lessons to be learned in life by donning and wearing one’s patience pants but today I got a totally different glimpse.
This morning while going through my Bible study I came across this line by Beth Moore “Don’t you find it utterly amazing that God the Father had the patience to wait to reveal the very apple of His eye?”. Well….why YES! yes I do! I have honestly NEVER thought of God as wearing patience pants! I mean I’ve always known He wants me to learn to wear them but I never ever ever ever thought that He actually wears them but He does! He had a plan from the beginning of time…like creation of the world…like before air and water and earth…that’s a LONG TIME! He had this plan for this crazy green and blue ball floating in the middle of the cosmos and then He had this plan for these goofy looking creatures with 2 arms and 2 legs and a body and a brain. He had a plan that we would smile and laugh and feel and relate. He even knew that Eve would break the 1 rule He gave these goofy looking creatures and Adam would stand there and watch and do nothing and then partake himself. He knew from the beginning of time that He had this plan for His son. He knew what had to be done before Adam’s first breath. AND HE WAITED! God had on His patience pants and waited for the exact right time. And He is STILL wearing His patience pants because He is waiting for the exact right time to send Jesus back.
So here’s my thought. If we are to be like Jesus and Jesus only did what He saw His Father doing, and God wears patience pants, then shouldn’t we wear them too? Yes there are lessons to be learned by wearing them but what if we didn’t look at them as scratchy and constricting and irritating? What if we saw them as something that God wears. In His ultimate wisdom, He wears patience pants, and DOESN’T COMPLAIN. If we want to do what our Father is doing….
A Beautiful Mess 