That’s what our moms said when it was getting down and dirty (and fun) with fellow siblings or neighborhood friends. It was only a few steps for her but travel time was important to us. It’s as though she said, “If I need to move from here to there, then I’ll do it.” That threatening statement normally stopped childish skirmishes.

It stopped because we weren’t quite sure what the “there” meant once she arrived there; a scolding, a time out or a spanking. (Spanking in our house was a dried painted wooden stirrer easily accessible on the left ledge next to the kitchen sink. I should have retrieved it after they both died.) (By the way, “time out” was not invented in my youth, spanking was the default method. What attorney can I call now?!)

How many times has God said that sentence to us? How many times did He try to communicate with us through his prophets until He needed to send the “big gun,” “my son, they’ll listen to my son,” says our confident Creator.

God’s Son came among us and what did he do while he was “there?” (He moved from where he was to where we are.) He did all three: he scolded us for doing what we always do only without thinking or knowledge; he spanked us continually because we still don’t get his simple message of love and forgiveness; and he gave us a time out, the Eucharist.

We get a time out from time to time to time ourselves out. Because there is no time in this time out, unless you’re Catholic and it’s two verses of the Opening Song and 30 minutes for weekday and 50 minutes on Sunday. But there is no time in the timeless time out that Jesus gave us. There is only us, gathered together and wondering why God took so long to complete His threat, “Don’t make me come over there!”