Sometimes you can tell which children here have American parents, yet remain Israeli at the core.
The other day, I heard my two middle kids talking (not fighting or arguing, just talking). The older one, my daughter, said to her brother in a matter-of-fact way, "You know, sometimes you're a real idiot. I don't mean that personally, of course…" (it sounds even better in Hebrew). And he just took it in and they continued like nothing insulting ever took place.
We have what to learn from Israelis.
"And they ate in a hurry" (Shemos 12:11).
In the beginning of our exodus from Egypt, things went a bit slow. Moshe showed up, demanded our release, Pharoah refused, he made the work harder, etc. Then the plagues started, and while they took time, things started to change for the Jewish people. The work stopped, the Egyptians started to leave them alone, soon, the Egyptians were afraid of them. By the time the final plague hit, things were at "full-steam." Pharaoh himself was kicking us out.
The more Hashem showed His power, the more the Jewish people saw their redemption coming. The more they saw their redemption coming, the more they desired to be with Hashem, who in turned showed more of His power.
In Shir HaShirim, Shlomo HaMelech writes, "Hark, My Beloved! There He comes! Leaping over mountains. Bounding over hills!" (2:8).
On a personal, and certainly on a national, level, Hashem is always waiting for us to return to Him. We often think that He has His "back" turned to us and is only, begrudgingly, willing to take us back. But that's not true at all!
Ask anybody with a successful marriage what the key to that success is and I … I mean, they, will tell you that when the husband makes his wife the priority in his life and the wife makes the husband the priority in her life, the marriage and their lives blossom.
The more we turn and make Hashem the priority in our life and want to do His will as if it were ours, so too, He will turn toward us, with no less energy, and make our will, His. The more we wish, and work, to join Him, the more He will reciprocate.