Change

Oh change.  I have to say, I am not a fan--which sounds funny coming from me, the perpetual "nomad" who has barely managed to live in one state for more than a year at a time since high school.  (I must say, though, as I come up on my second anniversary of moving to Texas, there is definitely something to be said for staying in one place!)  But change...change is full of uncertainties.  Things unknown, not yet experienced.  Questions.  And change, however good and exciting it may be, is inevitably accompanied by loss--loss of what was known, what was comfortable, what was.  Yet life goes on.  

One of my favorite books* as a child tells the story of a little girl who gives away her prized possession--a ballerina doll--to another little girl from a poor family:

That night, Christmas Eve, the canopy doll bed was empty, and Robin cried.  The stars outside her room shone like jewels on black velvet.  Robin thought about the Christmas star and how God had given Jesus on the first Christmas.  Suddenly her gift to Ellen seemed good, too, and peace replaced her longing.

The next morning, Christmas, Robin receives a special teddy bear, one she had seen and loved in the toy shop window.  Robin's mother tells her, "When something valuable goes out of your life, something more precious enters."

I think of that story, as I reflect on the changes of the past few years...the people I've known and the seasons of life that have come and gone...and while I wouldn't say that any one of them has been replaced by those who are more precious, I am so grateful that the Lord continues to bless me by the (yes, precious) people He places in my life and through the different experiences He allows me to have.  Oh so grateful.  He is ever-faithful.

And so now, as I see yet more changes on the horizon and am facing decisions that could radically shift life as I currently know it, I remember that He who holds my future is the same God who has directed my past, the same God who has given oh-so-abundantly and who has shown me that even when my whole world is shaken, He is with me, and He is in control.  Questions? unknowns? even loss? change?  I don't face any of it on my own; what's more, He guides my steps and promises to "keep in perfect peace [the one] whose mind is stayed on [Him]" (Isaiah 26:3).  What else could I possibly need?  And why should I fear?  May I ever remember the truths in this song:

Great is thy faithfulness, O God my father,
There is no shadow of turning with Thee
Thou changest not, Thy compassions, they fail not
As Thou hast been, Thou forever will be

Great is thy faithfulness
Great is thy faithfulness
Morning by morning new mercies I see
All I have needed thy hands hath provided
Great is they faithfulness, Lord unto me

Summer and winter, and springtime and harvest;
Sun, moon, and stars in their courses above
Join with all nature in manifold witness
To thy great faithfulness, mercy and love

Great is thy faithfulness
Great is thy faithfulness
Morning by morning new mercies I see
All I have needed thy hands hath provided
Great is they faithfulness, Lord unto me

Pardon for sin and a peace that endureth
Thine own dear presence to cheer and to guide
Strength for today and bright hope for tomorrow
Blessings all mine, with ten thousand beside

Great is thy faithfulness
Great is thy faithfulness
Morning by morning new mercies I see
All I have needed thy hands hath provided
Great is they faithfulness, Lord unto me

* A Bear Named Song, by Kimberly Anne Shope. This book is actually a beautiful story of adoption--I highly recommend it!