Change is hard. For all of us, at any age.
This past year, we transitioned our two-year-old from her crib in the nursery to a toddler bed in the room she now shares with her older sister. Our five-month-old had outgrown the bassinette in Mom and Dad’s room, and she really needed the crib. Time for my two-year-old to upgrade to a “big girl bed.”
Only she didn’t see it as an upgrade.
I’ll never forget that first night. She was absolutely beside herself—confused, frightened, frustrated, angry. Her torrent of sobs wrenched my heart. I sat by her bed, trying to soothe her, rubbing her little back, waiting out the storm.
Change. It stirs up quite a storm in us big people too. And changes involving our church can be some of the hardest.
We look to our church as a refuge from a stressful and scary world. We take comfort in our Sunday morning routine, in familiar ways of worship, in a church calendar that stays the same from year to year. We love the familiarity of our pastor and longtime staff. We breathe a sigh of relief walking through church doors, finding security in our church building itself.
When change hits, we feel that our security has been ripped away. Then we may let the stormy waves of fear or anger overtake us.
We may even try to stop the change, or make it unsuccessful, with sinful actions or sinful inaction. We may hurt our leaders, and our body of believers as a whole, with sinful words or sinful silence. We may question why God allowed the change, and how it could be good for us or for our church.
God does not keep silent or answer us in anger, though his anger would be justified. In love, this is what he tells us:
“’For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,’ declares the LORD. ‘As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts’” (Isaiah 55:8-9).
From my vantage point as an adult and a parent, on that difficult night I saw a much bigger picture than my distressed two-year-old could see. This change ultimately was good for her and necessary for our whole family. Always, I explain what I can. But there is much I cannot explain because she cannot comprehend it.
The change with which we struggle fits into a much bigger whole. The “big picture” our Almighty Creator sees is infinitely, infinitely more than we could ever comprehend. The children’s song has it right: No matter how things look with our limited vision, he’s got the whole world, including our church, including this change, in his hands.
“And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose” (Romans 8:28).
Yes, our faithful God is working all things, all things, even a difficult transition, for our good.
If he promised to send a Savior and did it; if he promised to raise Jesus from the dead and did it; if he promised to send the Holy Spirit to give us faith and power and did it; then let us trust him when he assures us all things.
He works this change for my good, personally. And he works always for the good of his church as a whole, his beloved family.
“He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High will rest in the Shadow of the Almighty. He will cover you with his feathers and under his wings you will find refuge” (Psalm 91:1,4).
God himself provides the security we crave and the protection we need. He knows that these cannot come from a building, a worship format, a routine, a schedule, or our called workers. Change can reveal that we were relying on these blessings from God for our sense of security, rather than on him. He wants to shelter us by the only means we can be protected eternally—through his Word and Sacraments. These he uses to pull us and keep us under the safety and security of his wings.
“The LORD your God goes with you; he will never leave you or forsake you” (Deuteronomy 31:6).
Her first night in the new toddler bed, I was right there beside my daughter. Our Heavenly Father, our perfect parent, assures us that he goes with us into those hard transitions, and never leaves our side.
As a mom, I love my children so much, and yet that love is only a dim shadow of God’s love for us. We are so precious to him that he sent his Son to pay for our sins of failing to trust in his presence and his good purpose during times of change. Jesus paid too for our sinful words, actions, and our failures to act and speak. He carried our sins of clinging to God’s blessings rather than to God alone. He was forsaken by God, so that we could become God’s children and live under the awesome assurance that our Father will never abandon us.
For us, his precious children, he employs all his wisdom and strength to work every change for our good, to make us truly secure in him, and to stay with us always. His words of truth, comfort, and love enable us to face any difficult transition with hope and even joy.
