Midnight or a Thousand Years

“But do not forget this one thing, dear friends: With the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day.” This is Peter (2 Peter 3:8) quoting what Moses, the man of God, said in Psalm 90:4. I’ve mentioned before that when God took the time to say something twice, it is noteworthy!

I have used these two scriptures to “explain” why God’s timetable and Carol’s timetable are so different. If I have to wait for an answer to one of my prayers, I just sigh (still with faith, of course) and think, “well, you know with God a day is like a thousand years.”

Just when I get comfortable with that explanation, He throws me a curve. Let me tell you about last summer. (I may have told it before, but that’s what “old” people do—more about that later) I was relatively comfortable letting God be God and attempting patience in answers to most of my prayers. Then, I was chosen to be the story lady at summer bible school. Okay, I love to tell kids bible stories.

Then, I learned the stories were parables. Still all right; I love parables. What would be your five favorites? Good Samaritan? Talents? Prodigal Son? Lost Sheep? Four Soils? Good Son? Those are all terrific. These and several others I would very much enjoy telling to the small people. Sure enough, four of these parables were the ones assigned by the curriculum chosen for the bible school.

There was one, however, I was shocked to discover—the midnight knocker.

Then Jesus said to them, “Suppose you have a friend, and you go to him at midnight and say, ‘Friend, lend me three loaves of bread; a friend of mine on a journey has come to me, and I have no food to offer him.’ And suppose the one inside answers, ‘Don’t bother me. The door is already locked, and my children and I are in bed. I can’t get up and give you anything.’ I tell you, even though he will not get up and give you the bread because of friendship, yet because of your shameless audacity he will surely get up and give you as much as you need.

So, I had to tell 100 little lambs what God said in verses 9 and 10: “So I say to you: Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened.” You pray and God will answer, period.

Now, not only did I have to study and teach that parable, I had to listen to bible teachers in two different media teach on the midnight knocker. As I’ve said often, when God gives me the same message two or three times, I come to attention.

I still have a difficult time reconciling these two components of answered prayer; God will answer by midnight and a day is as a thousand years. What a conundrum—a question I cannot answer. And yet, I pray and believe that God answers—sometimes quickly, sometimes over the thousand years.

Scott Kippayne sings a song that says “sometimes he calms the storms…and other times he calms his child.

♫ "All who sail the sea of faith
Find out before too long
How quickly blue skies can grow dark
And gentle winds grow strong
Suddenly fear is like white water
Pounding on the soul
Still we sail on knowing
That our Lord is in control

Sometimes He calms the storm
With a whispered peace be still
He can settle any sea
But it doesn't mean He will
Sometimes He holds us close
And lets the wind and waves go wild
Sometimes He calms the storm
And other times He calms His child

He has a reason for each trial
That we pass through in life
And though we're shaken
We cannot be pulled apart from Christ
No matter how the driving rain beats down
On those who hold to faith
A heart of trust will always
Be a quiet peaceful place." ♫

Back to that “old people” repeating the same story, remember when he was old, Moses spoke all of Deuteronomy shortly before his death. It pretty much repeats Exodus, Leviticus, and Numbers. Not bad for a man who was slow of speech (Exodus 4:10).