He is not a factoryworker, a celebrity recording Instagram reels, a fast food chef or comedian looking for quick and cheap laughs or a news anchor. He is a sower (Matthew 13), a shepherd (Psalm 23), a vine dresser (John 15). a potter (Jeremiah 18), a father (John 14) and a husband (Isaiah 54). These are but a few examples of what characterizes God’s speed of work: slow. Why? Because growing, living, loving things grow slowly and beautiful things are not created in a hurry. Strength, durability and goodness are attributes that God meant to slowly, but surely develop. What for? So that they may grow roots deep into His own heart.

Let me write that again: God knows that what grows quickly dies quickly and what is built quickly falls down at the same speed. To avoid that, He grow us and builds us slowly, so that with Him, we may last forever. Practically speaking, God didn’t create us to be superheroes but to be like trees planted by a stream of living water (Psalm 1). Its daily growth seems barely noticeable to the birds living on its branches, but with the passing of time it becomes a magnificent tree, giving shelter in bad days and abundance of fruit to the hungry.

In other words: I am God’s son, not God’s fast food burger. I am not assembled in 2.5 minutes, but over a lifetime. When I grow tired of myself and frustrated with my immaturity, I need to remember that God created me, and cultivates me, with the intention of seeing me come fully and beautifully alive forever. I can trust the slow work of God. He himself asks us to do so: “10  For as the rain comes down, and the snow from heaven, And do not return there, But water the earth, And make it bring forth and bud, That it may give seed to the sower And bread to the eater, 11  So shall My word be that goes forth from My mouth; It shall not return to Me void, But it shall accomplish what I please, And it shall prosper in the thing for which I sent it” (Isaiah 55:10-11).