God’s Amazing Patience

Patience is a virtue. I admire parents who seemingly have endless patience with their two year old’s constant “No!” Or teachers who patiently coax their students to stretch their learning and strive to achieve all their talent allows. Patience is that virtue which enables us to wait for the maturing of persons, abilities and ideas.

“The kingdom of heaven” is continually being established by a God who is amazingly patient. This Sunday’s three gospel parables illustrate this well. The kingdom of heaven is guaranteed by the God who patiently cultivates even when the field produces weeds as well as wheat, the God who confidently plants even when the seed seems inconsequential, the God who capably raises batches of bread from mere yeast. This is a God who knows that worthwhile and everlasting things take time and cannot be rushed.

If God is patient with wheat and seed and leaven, how much more is God patient with us! Being patient with testy children, being patient trying to teach another some skill, being patient with another’s foibles and weaknesses are all ways God’s patience is present through us.

God’s patience abounds as does the kingdom of heaven!