Change

As I was taking a walk through my neighborgood this afternoon, enjoying the colors of fall, I began to think about life.  I began to think about how many times I had walked up the street.  I have walked up Walker Road in every season, in every kind of weather, wearing every kind of clothes, doing every kind of activity, for the last 13 years.  Now I am 16, about to leave it all beind, and not sure where all the time went.  Time is fascinating, because those who are in it, have trouble seeing it work.  Think about it this way:  When you see your grandma for the first time in a few months, she is amazed by how much taller you have gotten.  You, on the other hand, haven't noticed this change.  Why? You do not noticed because you are in time.  The change is piece by piece so you don't notice.  However, your grandmother is out of time, so to speak.  The change is clear.  Fascinating, isn't it? 

Now that I have gone off on that tangent, let me get back to my point.  I couldn't get change off my mind.  It surrounded me.  The change in the weather and in the trees, and the coming change in my life.  Change is everything to us.  Think about what the first thing we say to someone we haven't seen in awhile; 'How have you been'.  If not for the fact that we change, this question would be absurd.  'Anything new?'; change!  Let's take it a step further.  Change is the best part of our lives.  What do we look forward to the most in life? Going to school, going to high school, driving, going off to college, starting a career, getting married, having a kid. Change!!  Change is truly the spice of life.  So why do we love change?  I think it is centered around the fact they we are easily bored.  We constantly want a new challenge, something new to do or to conquer.

Here's where it gets really interesting.  We also hate change.  It scares us to death.  We fight it at all costs.  We are frightened by the unknown.  Death, the ultimate change, scares us beyond belief.  We can't imagine how we can live with new drastic changes.  So what we are left with is a great paradox in life.  We love change and yet we hate it.  This can be seen in parenthood.  The new parents are excited about the new change that they are about to experience, and yet frightened of the unknown. 

So how do we deal with this paradox?  I contend that it cannot be solved on earth.  While we are here, we will constantly be striving for the next new thing, and yet scared of what is around the corner.  I believe this is by design, this is not our home.  We were created with certain tendencies to point us to our Creator.  This is true here.  In God we have the perfect harmony between our need of change and our fear of it.  First let us examine the fear of change.  We know that God is immutable, He does not change ever.  This we can be sure of.  He will always be what He was today, and we know who He is from His perfect Word.  We need not fear, because He will not change.  Now lets deal with the second part; that is our need for change.  How can an unchanging God solve that?  He solves it perfectly.  Our God is so great that we will never be bored of Him, and in need of something new.  We can search Him out for 100,000 years and not even wrap our arms around his foothill.  What an amazing thought!  In God the problem caused by the paradox is fixed.  In Christ we find our complete fulfillment.  He is everything.  Sola Christus!!!!