God's "Mistake"

"Mom, I’ve been thinking, and I decided that, well, sometimes God makes mistakes."

That’s what my daughter told me from her car seat this morning on the way to school. 

She said it so solemnly—like she was heavy with this “truth” she’d discovered—and so matter-of-factly. It was not a passing thought flitting through her ever-curious mind, but something she’d “been thinking” and “decided.” She was sad but not terribly distraught. Because, to her, God is someone like Daddy and even though it’s hard to understand and not pleasant, Daddies make mistakes sometimes. She said it like she’d say that, that Daddy makes mistakes. 

I talked to her about how sometimes it looks like God’s made a mistake but how He doesn’t really because He’s perfect and because He’s able, and I talked about how we’re just too small to understand God sometimes, no matter how big we get.

And then my mom, sitting beside me in the driver’s seat, asked the obvious question, the one I couldn’t believe I hadn’t asked:

"What mistake do you think God made?"

And London said, after only a second or two’s pause, “Well, I think God made a mistake because He hasn’t come back yet to take us to Heaven.”

And the car went silent. And I thought, “Yeah…”

He who testifies to these things says, “Yes, I am coming soon.” Amen. Come, Lord Jesus.

Rev. 22:20