Watermelons and Waiting

I'm going to go get some dirt in my bucket!"  Elliot said loudly, holding up a bright orange bucket.

"Where are you going to get dirt?"  Elaine asked him.

"In the garden," he said, which seemed safe enough.  The garden is a good place to get dirt from right now, because about all there is in it is dirt.  Well, dirt, okra, and weeds -- but certainly there is more than enough dirt there to fill up a little child-sized bucket.

Scarcely two minutes had passed when Elliot came hurrying down the hill, yelling proudly and holding something green aloft.  "Elliot David Waldron!"  Elaine said.  "Did you pick that?"

"Yes, Mom," Elliot was exuberant.  "It's a watermelon.  We can eat it."  He was right that it was a watermelon, but it wasn't such a watermelon as would ever grace the shelves of any grocery store.  It was tiny, scarcely bigger than a cantelope and when you tapped on it, it gave no satisfying hollow thud, instead it sounded pretty solid.

Of course, there is no explaining the concept of waiting to a four year old.  Within five minutes of leaving your driveway on a trip, he is ready to be there already.  When he hears about a vacation coming, he is ready to leave the following morning.  And when he sees a watermelon in the garden, he picks it immediately.

Some of this has to do with time sense.  Four year olds just don't have the same sense of time adults have.  Age certainly will let you leave unripe watermelons longer in the garden, but it doesn't necessarily bring patience.  Certainly as we get older, we get quieter while we wait, but that doesn't mean that we have a peaceful spirits in those times of pausing in daily existence.

In those moments when we are ready for the next thing to happen and nothing at all is happening, Patience walks hand in hand with Trust.  For, we can be patient only as we trust that someone greater is in charge and that He will bring things and people into our lives that we need, at exactly the right moment.

Otherwise, we may be tempted to pick the watermelons of life long before they are ripe.

That's far from a tasty proposition.