The Fox Who Taught Us to Sit Closer

In Antoine de Saint-Exupéry's The Little Prince, a lonely fox asks the prince to tame him — to make him more than just another fox among a hundred thousand foxes. But taming, the fox explains, requires patience. "You must be very patient," he says. "First you will sit down at a little distance from me — like that — in the grass. I shall look at you out of the corner of my eye, and you will say nothing. Words are the source of misunderstandings. But you will sit a little closer to me, every day..."

No rushing. No shortcuts. Just faithful presence, repeated day after day, the distance slowly closing.

This is how so much of the spiritual life works. We want the breakthrough now — the answered prayer, the healed relationship, the clarity we've been begging for. But the Lord often works the way the fox describes: a little closer, every day. James tells us to "let patience have its perfect work" (James 1:4), and the word "perfect" there means complete, fully grown. Patience is not passive waiting. It is showing up again, sitting a little closer, trusting that the distance is shrinking even when we cannot measure it.

If you are in a season where God feels far away, keep sitting in the grass. He is looking at you out of the corner of His eye. And the distance is closing.