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Are We There Yet?
“Are we there yet?”
I can’t help thinking that the question, so familiar to family travelers, is an inborn genetic trait triggered one hour after the car leaves the driveway. Sometimes children even make a repetitive chant out of it, thus increasing its output a hundredfold before the parents put a stop to the noise, if not to the wondering itself. And if we’re completely honest, it isn’t just the kids who lose patience for the destination, I’ve been known to ask this riding shotgun.
On my family’s first trip to Disney World in 1972, all loaded up in the Ford Country Squire station wagon, after the timing of the questions probably reached every five minutes, after we had played “the Guessing Game” for hours, my grandad finally told us, “When you see Cinderella Castle, you’ll know you’re there.”
What a relief to know how to recognize our destination! And he was right. A few interminable hours later, Cinderella Castle loomed in the distance, and we knew we were there.
I sometimes wonder about salvation. Are we there yet? How can we tell if we’re there? The Bible suggests that the mark of salvation is the opposite of Cinderella Castle – that luxuriant palace with people sleeping away, where a prince has found his princess and they live together in perfect happiness.
“Are we there yet?” Salvation is a soup kitchen filled with generous cooks and destitute guests sharing a meal together, week after week.
“Are we there yet?” Salvation is where we are at home praying and meditating, just talking with God, “dropping anchor” to become aware of His constant presence.
“Are we there yet?” Salvation is where forgiveness is offered and received, acknowledging failure and confessing it to God to restore fellowship.
“Are we there yet?” Salvation is surrendering anxious thoughts or regrets, consciously letting them go, entrusting them to God’s care and providence.
Actually, we are always there. “The home of God is among mortals,” says Revelation 21:3. Because God has chosen to dwell with us, we are always in the right place. We don’t need Cinderella Castle to know we are “there.”
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