March 25 - “Snail theater: Act One”

What are some of the ways god has "helped" you to develop your patience?  Holding off on an answer to prayer?  Allowing you to experience more of a particularly frustrating relationship than you cared to continue?  Making it possible for you to spend extra quality time with that certain someone whose very presence grates on your already frayed nerves?  Want an exercise in developing patience that doesn't even involve people?  We discovered just the thing for it the other day.    Chris was out on the front porch with Caleb and it had grown quieter than usual, so I went out to check on them.  They were sitting the rocking chairs focusing intently on … something.  I opened the door to join them and was greeted with "Look DadDad.  It's a snail."  Sure enough, slithering across the front porch and leaving his telltale trail of slime behind him (or her.  How do you tell with snails, anyway?).  Caleb wasn't the least bit interested in getting anywhere near the creature.  He was doing just fine right where he was, thank you very much.    I called back inside for Zakary to come check it out.  It's not very often that you get to watch a snail racing across such a wide expanse of nothingness, so the scientific inquiry possibilities were immeasurable.  Indeed Zak did come out.  Being the elder brother, and as such, much wiser and braver – truly a man of the world – Zak went right up to the creature.  And like the towering giant reaching down for the tiny Jack who had invaded his beanstalk, he reached out and touched the snail.  True to his nature, the snail turtled himself into his shell and waited, content to stick around in safety until the monstrosity hovering above chose to depart.  To my surprise, Zak joined him.  Not inside the shell, though that would have been an interesting experience, I'm sure, albeit slimy and gooey.  Perfect stuff for a C grade sci-fi movie.    So Zak waited.  I wondered how long he could hold out, patiently waiting for a monumental event with the only hope of reward being the glorious chance to once again see the tiny snail antennae slowly reappear, followed by the cautious mass of snail body and the trailing gook of the slime path as he creeps across the concrete.    Answer?  Not long.  In the time it took me to walk to our kitchen to pick up the camera (my intention was to record the even for Vaughan Family historical lore), Zak was done.  The call of the Lego wild was just too much for him to hold inside.  Leaving the boarded up shell to the uncertain future, Zak returned to his prior, more exciting task of creating Lego machines and monsters.  And only Caleb remained with his Nani, each protected by the other, for neither dared to disturb the sleeping slime-monger.   But certainly there was something to be gained from the brief encounter.  Surely some lesson, some moral.  I have it: Stay with it.  It may take you awhile to get where God intends for you to be, but you can do it.  And when you do, you will be able to look back and see the slime – er – residue – er – results of your determination to stick it out.  Bad habits kicked.  Positive relationships formed.  A changed life.   Isaiah 64:4-5 says, "Since ancient times no one has heard, no ear has perceived, no eye has seen any God besides you, who acts on behalf of those who wait for him.  You come to the help of those who gladly do right, who remember your ways."   Father, you are amazing.  Forgive our impatience and preoccupation with the things around us.  Give us the patience of a snail to wait on your timing.  Amen.