“When are your library books due back?” That’s easy enough to answer, right?! You flip to the inside back cover to find the date stamped on the pocket. And if your electric bill payment is due on the 15th of the month that is a very specific time.

“When are you due?” Perhaps the question most asked a mom-to-be and while the doctor has given a due date, we know that babies seldom arrive on the date they are expected! But at least we have a ballpark estimate of when we can expect the celebration to begin!

The Bible also uses the word ‘due’ but it’s usually wedged into this phrase: in due time. That takes it from being pretty specific to frustratingly abstract. In fact, most often, when we read ‘in due time’…we tend to think that ‘waiting for the answer for an indefinite length of time‘ is the translation. In the Old Testament, Hannah prayed, and cried, and begged God for a child for years. 1 Samuel 1 in verse 20 it says in due time Hannah gave birth to a son. 1 Peter 5:6 tells us to humble ourselves under God’s mighty hand and He will lift us up in due time. And one of my favorite promises is in Galatians 6:9. And let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap, if we do not give up.

It may only take twenty seconds to read one verse in the Bible that talks about what can happen in due time. The actual answer could take a lifetime! Let’s face it. We have a very limited scope of the whole story of our lives. But God sees it all. He knows how all of our stories fit together to tell HIS story. And it will be magnificent…when it’s all told…in due time!