The Long-Awaited Return

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My son has a new favorite word: “back.”

He picked it up after his grandparents and great-grandparents reassured him as they left: “You can come back and visit again soon.”

In response, he has started saying “back” whenever anyone leaves a room.

He’s doing really great with understanding the concept – except for when my husband goes to work.

As a stay-at-home mom and part-time writer, I spend every moment with him while my husband works hard to provide for us. But at only 16 months old, my son doesn’t understand why his best friend suddenly disappears when the sun comes up.

Each morning, as soon as he wakes up, he goes and checks every room of our house, eagerly searching and calling for his precious “da-da.”

“He’s at work,” I try to explain.

To which he looks back at me and demands, “Back.”

All day long, no matter what happens, he keeps asking his dad to come back.

And when he does safely arrive home? It is a party!

Knowing his dad will come home, my son often waits by the door for him. As soon as that car pulls in the driveway, he knows that there will be time to play outside, books to read, snacks to eat, and fun to have.

When he is home, we know that we are all safe and happy.

In light of the upcoming Easter holiday, this new lesson from my son made me think about an unlikely group – Jesus’s disciples.

They enjoyed spending time with Jesus during His ministry and had given up everything to follow and serve Him. Trusting His promises, they served Him faithfully even amid uncertainty.

How did they react when, after all that they’d seen Him do, He told them that He was going to die and leave them?

In Matthew 16:21, we read that Jesus told them of his upcoming death.

From that time on Jesus began to explain to his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things at the hands of the elders, the chief priests and the teachers of the law, and that he must be killed and on the third day be raised to life.

To which Peter responded in the following verse, “This shall never happen to you!”

Another example of Jesus foretelling what would happen can be found in John 16:1-4, which says:

“Do not let your hearts be troubled. You believe in God; believe also in me. My Father’s house has many rooms; if that were not so, would I have told you that I am going there to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am. You know the way to the place where I am going.”

Following Jesus’s words, Thomas, in his true fashion, began to doubt. He was the first of the bunch to ask, “Lord, we don’t know where you are going, so how can we know the way?”

But can we really blame him?

This group of men had seen Him perform miracles and wonders.

They had seen Him cast out demons and heal the unhealable.

They had seen Him walk on water.

Surely, He would avoid death and not leave their sides!

Yet, when the time came, they watched their hero crucified. And for three days, they waited in the shadows. He said He would return, but did they really believe it?

But alas, He did defeat the grave.

Just as He promised them, in three days’ time, He arose from the dead and returned.

I’d like to say that if I were in the disciples’ shoes, I would respond with strength and unwavering trust during Jesus’s departure, but, like my son waiting for his dad, I often find myself anxious and filled with questions as I wait on God’s promises. Even though He has never failed, and He won’t start now.

In the meantime, He has made another promise to us: that He will return again.

Like my child, it is easy for us to wonder during difficult days whether our Heavenly Father is truly coming back to rescue us from the darkness of this world. But unlike His earthly followers, we have the entire Bible to show us how, again and again, He has always been faithful and will continue to be so.

Praise God, He is coming back for us.

What a party it will be when we meet Him face-to-face!

He who testifies to these things says, “Surely I am coming soon.” Amen. Come, Lord Jesus (Revelation 22:20)!

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