Those of you who are parents will appreciate this picture! Children can be a burden at times; they do things like hold onto your ears and wet on you. But you love them, even when they are really, really bad. They will try your patience, test your limits and generally think that the world revolves around them. Jesus tells a parable (an Earthly story, with a heavenly meaning) that has meaning even to this day. He says...
Mark 12:1-11 Complete Apostles' Bible
(1) Then He began to speak to them with parables: "A man planted a vineyard and set a fence around it, dug a wine vat and built a tower. And he leased it to farmers, and went on a journey.
(2) And at harvest-time he sent a servant to the farmers, in order that he might receive his part from the fruit of the vineyard.
(3) And they took him and beat him and sent him away empty-handed.
(4) Again he sent them another servant, and that one they wounded in the head with stones, and they sent him away shamefully treated.
(5) And again he sent another, and that one they killed, and so with many others, beating some and killing others.
(6) Therefore still having one son, his beloved, he even sent him to them last, saying, 'They will respect my son.'
(7) "But those farmers said to one another, 'This is the heir. Come, let us kill him, and the inheritance will be ours.'
(8) "And taking him they killed him, and cast him out of the vineyard.
(9) Therefore what will the owner of the vineyard do? He will come and will destroy the farmers, and give the vineyard to others.
(10) Have you not even read this Scripture: 'The stone which the builders rejected Has become the chief cornerstone.
(11) This was the LORD's doing, and it is marvelous in our eyes'?"
See also Isaiah 5:1-7
The "man" is our heavenly father, the "vineyard" is the nation of Israel and the stone is Jesus. The farmers of the vineyard are those who rejected Jesus in his day and the "others" are the Gentiles (us). As the parable indicates, the father has been patient and put up with a lot, BUT THERE ARE LIMITS! Who knows their exact time when he will say "enough"; only the father. Who knows when judgment begins, once again, only the father. But rest assured, God will straighten everything out someday and it will involve more than just putting his baby down or changing that soiled shirt. Don't worry about, just obey what the "chief cornerstone" (Jesus) would have you to do. No problem!