A Little While

“In a little while you won’t see Me anymore. But a little while after that, you will see Me again.” (John 16:16 NLT)

What is a ‘little while’? It’s a question worth asking.

When we consider a little while within the scope of eternity, we realize, a little while is a lifetime.

Let’s consider context. Jesus said that in a little while the disciples would see Him no longer. Through the lens of history, we know that the disciples had the remainder of the evening together before Jesus was arrested and cruelly tried and ultimately crucified by suppertime the following day.

The long weekend of grief would be eclipsed by miraculous resurrection: the restored Jesus would walk with His disciples a few more weeks and then He would ascend into heaven.

Tragedy and loss and restoration have a way of stretching days and weeks into a lifetime, don’t they? I’d imagine the disciples felt a few decades older by the time they’d drug themselves through the jarring legislation of crucifixion and resurrection. I suspect that they felt like entirely different people by the end: I know how loss and gain has aged my own soul.

Additionally, we are reassured that a ‘little while’ is a lifetime because the Word reminds us regularly:

“What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes.” (James 4:14 NIV)

“Show me, Lord, my life’s end, and the number of my days, let me know how fleeting it is. You have made my days a mere handbreadth; the span of my years is as nothing to You.” (Psalm 39:4-5 NIV)

There is a great comfort in a ‘little while’ for the believer. Any trouble, any suffering, or even misunderstanding has a threshold it cannot cross. One day soon our ‘little while’ will be over and we’ll be reborn into the unbroken presence of the risen Savior. We’ll have a resurrected frame as He does and all the trauma and toil of this earth will be a distant and fading memory; a bad dream dissolving in golden morning light.

I officiated a funeral last week. Such an occasion always offers an opportunity to confront my own ‘little while’. At 42 I am closer to the end of my story than the beginning. Questions beg to be asked. How am I spending my ‘little while’? Am I faithful? Am I focused? I am reminding again, it will only be a ‘little while’ longer before He comes and collects me; may I use my ‘little while’ well.

Lord, we are comforted and chastened by Your label of a ‘little while’. We look forward to Your return, yet we know there is much to do. May we live faithful and focused with the ‘little while’ we have left. May we look forward to Your triumphant return with all our being. Amen.

(Many years ago my kids dubbed this the ten minute song; but I promise it’s with all ten minutes!)