Four years ago, I became the primary caregiver for a 7-year-old Ugandan boy who was dying of Acute Myeloid Leukemia (AML).

During the first 3 weeks that I attended to Okello, he was unable to see me because of painful, blinding tumors that shrouded both his eyes. Okello was able to recognize me, however, whenever I entered his hospital room. He could also detect my patterns of caring for him, which included bringing him a daily staple of peanut butter crackers.

Though we were in the midst of earthly suffering and sorrow, the nurses in the cancer ward became our friends and we enjoyed joking with one another. I often think back to one afternoon in particular when one of the nurses noticed an unopened package of the peanut butter crackers in Okello’s shirt pocket. “If you don’t eat those,” the nurse teased him, “your Auntie Rox won’t return to bring you any more.” “She will come,” was Okello’s response.

I was awed by my young friend’s confidence that I would come back for him. It caused me to consider the immense pleasure God must experience when we display trust in His return for us.

Jesus, after all, has already proven Himself to be trustworthy. He came to earth on a journey infinitely more sacrificial, meaningful, and purposeful than any sojourn you or I could ever make for another. Jesus alone “died for us so that, whether we are dead or alive when He returns, we can live with Him forever” (1 Thessalonians 5:10). Yes, He will come.

While we wait for that glorious day, we can take comfort in the promises that God will keep us “strong to the end” and that He “who began the good work within [us], will continue His work until it is finally finished on the day when Christ Jesus returns” (1 Corinthians 1:8; Philippians 1:6).

NLT 365-day reading plan passage for today: Joshua 24:1-31