fresh flowers for February 11

Season of Change
copyright 2006, lani wiens
a fresh flowers original

I am astounded by the volume of change that I am seeing around me, in me and even through me. It is staggering to me. There are some huge changes, like our government which will affect our entire country. I see changes in the weather and in the lengthening of days as we approach a change of season. I see changes in our church as we get set to go to two services. I see changes in my body as I get closer and closer to giving birth to this baby, who will also cause massive change in our home. I just spent the weekend at a home-schooling convention and know that lots of changes will be coming into our home, our minds and our hearts because of the puzzle pieces that God gave us to put together into a picture of our family. I see changes in the lives of the individuals that have been part of our bible study group. I see changes in my children as they grow, learn and mature. I see changes in our back bedroom as the paint and flooring is finally going in. And I know that the changes will not stop coming, they will continue as surely as the seasons change.

What strikes me the most about all these changes is how very difficult they all are. It would seem that no change is easy even though some changes require less effort than others. At the moment changing the sheets on my bed requres much less effort than changing positions in that same bed. On the other hand, for my small son changing the bed would require huge effort while changing position would not. It is a matter of physical differences, abilities and knowledge.

When I think about how difficult it is to change someone's mind about something once they've come to a conclusion or how difficult it is to change my own mind about something once I've made it up I'm astounded that some changes ever take place at all. Some changes are imposed on us while others we can participate in either positively or negatively. Our government has changed, we all were given the opportunity to have a say in that change. However, the overall outcome is imposed, we must now live with the change and learn to live with the consequences of the changes that our countrymen as well as ourselves have brought about, for better or worse.

In the election campaign, hundreds of people worked tirelessly to sway opinion and change people's minds. Each candidate was attempting to change the heart and mind of every single voting person in this country to their party platform. That is no easy task, obviously none of them were completely successful in their endeavour or we would have had one party having 100% of the vote.

I've often read and heard how people are upset that the church doesn't change. I'm wondering how closely they are looking. If it's impossible to change the mind of the whole country and almost equally impossible to change the mind of a single individual who doesn't want to change, change in any organization that includes a number of individuals will, at best, be slow. But change it will, because change is inevitable and necessary. For some people in our congregation going to two services may appear to be an abrupt change, having been on staff several years ago, I know that it isn't, we've been talking about it and praying about it for years. We must be patient and see that we are part of the solution and not part of the problem.

Like the changing of the seasons, or the metamorphisis of a caterpillar to a butterfly, it may look at first glance like nothing is happening. Yet under the surface a miracle is taking place and then, voila! the change happens and it seems like it was instantaneous. The scripture declares that outwardly we waste away, yet inwardly we are being renewed (changed) day by day. What a wonderful promise. God is transforming us little by little into His image. Sometimes it seems like nothing is going on, but underneath a stirring has happened, the Spirit is at work. Be patient dear ones, cooperate with the Lord in whatever change is taking place, submit to your leadership, look for the positive, perhaps the change will come a little faster. While not every change seems like a good one at the time, we can be assured that the over all picture is being fitted together by the Lord God himself. No need to worry in this season of change.