Root Beer Floats

I was five and my sister was seven, and we were visiting relatives in Wisconsin for a few weeks. One night, several relatives came to my aunt’s house, where we were staying. Bedtime came and we were put into a curtained alcove off the kitchen/living room (if my memory serves me right), and while we struggled to go to sleep, the adults socialised while drinking root beer floats. It was agony hearing the spoons stirring, the straws slurping, the bubbles bubbling, while trying to sleep in a hot, stuffy room.

We were promised a root beer float the next day. The next day dawned eventually, but the root beer floats never appeared. I think my aunt just forgot, and we were taught never to ask for anything so we didn’t. We never got a root beer float during our visit there, for whatever reason, and over the years it became a joke between Judy, our mom and me, but at the time it was a promise broken. We were disappointed and let down.

God doesn’t promise root beer floats, but he does promise that he will never fail or abandon us. Sometimes I have heard a promise from him, but time has passed and it has felt a little like the root beer float that never appeared. Unlike that forgotten float, though, God never forgets, and he is faithful. His timing is not the same as ours, and his answers may not be in the form we are expecting, but I am assured that he is the same yesterday, today, and forever, and what he says will happen, will indeed happen. 

I can rest in his assurance, and wait with expectancy and peace.