Do You Know Patience?

I’ve got to have a Bible, so I can learn more about Jesus,” our five-year-old granddaughter insisted.

She was speaking to her Gigi  (Lori) and her Great Aunt Lisa, Lori’s sister, visiting us from Oklahoma. 

They were going to church together on Sunday, and Emmie insisted on carrying a Bible. After all, it wouldn’t do for her to show up at church bibleless. 

Lori and Lisa were taken back by her comment, even as they grinned. Emmie thought it of utmost importance to have a Bible in her hand. The pew Bibles at church weren’t enough: she was associating holding a Bible with a desire to know more about Jesus. 

“I wonder where that came from?” Lori asked me as she told me the story later at church.

I immediately had the answer: “Two weeks of Vacation Bible School,”as if that were explanation enough. 

I had observed her during the week of Vacation Bible School while Lori was working in the church kitchen. This child had no problem absorbing herself into any VBS activity. Whether it’s crafts, fun and games, singing, or Bible lessons— she’s all-in. 

One night, after VBS was over, the two of us, Emmie and I, sat on the church’s front porch. “What’s your favorite thing about Vacation Bible School?” I asked. She had to ponder for a moment before settling on crafts.

“Well, you didn’t get that from me,” I grinned, putting my arm around her shoulder.

I had watched her during Bible lesson time, amazed at how her two teachers, Anita and Michelle, connected Bible lessons with activities that engaged the children. It was the same for everything that week, the songs, the Bible stories, prayer before their snacks. Even the games they played were in the context of learning about Jesus.

The result was more consequential than simply bringing a Bible to church. Emmie was learning how to put Bible truths into practice with five-year-old steps. 

One afternoon, Lisa, Lori, Madi (Emmie’s mom), and the kids were around the pool, splashing in the water, relaxing under the shade. 

Lisa wanted everyone to listen to a song on her phone. “Listen, “she repeated while the kids were jumping in and out of the pool. “Listen,” she repeated, trying to get their attention. 

Finally, Emmie walked over to Lisa, took a deep breath, looked her straight in the eyes, and asked, “Aunt Lisa, do you know patience?” (Patience is the fourth fruit of the Spirit in Galatians 5:22-23.)

Emmie used the word “know” instead of “have.” Unknowingly, she had underscored a subtle difference in terms. It’s one thing to say you “have” something and another that you “know” something. “Knowing” connotes an intimacy, a deeper relationship. You can “have” something tucked away in your mental backpack, like a snake bite kit, for emergencies only. “Knowing” something is more experiential.

Jesus had to know patience, not merely have it, as he put up with his thick-headed disciples for three years. 

Nigerian poet Ogwo David Emenike has said, “Knowing trees, I came to realize, understand and appreciate the act of patience.” 

I suppose knowing, genuinely knowing trees, equates with knowing patience.

“Where did she get that, ‘knowing’ patience?” they chuckled later.

“Vacation Bible School,” I quipped. 

Emmie’s now on her third week with church number three in Vacation Bible School. I’ve dubbed her “The Vacation Bible School Queen” and predicted that by the end of the summer, she’ll become the “Abbess in the Whitlock House of Prayer.” Her child-like devotion to eternal truths will help the adults.

We hear a lot of chatter these days about the irreparable cultural divide in America, the increasing secularization of our world, the decline of church attendance, and the evaporation of traditional morals, not to mention our drive to acquire more and more at the expense of those who have less and less. Maybe we ALL need to take a deep breath, look ourselves in the mirror, and ask with Emmie: “Do you know patience?”

If we can’t at least do that, maybe we should all consign ourselves to three weeks in Vacation Bible School. The world would invariably be a better place.