Battling Change

 Change happens. I look around and see the colors of Fall deepening by the day. A few, short weeks ago, my backyard was green and bursting with flowers and new life. Now, everything looks so different: the leaves have turned into shades of red and gold, the nights are getting colder and leaving condensation sitting thick on the bedroom windows. An almost-dying is taking place, a transition into the season of dormancy. The months where life lies hidden underneath frozen ground and a white blanket of snow. 

As I ponder the new color scheme of the land around me, a thought occurs: as the seasons change so, too, do our lives. I've felt that also of late - new friendships, hard good-byes, losses mingled with gains. How we handle life's transitions, how we handle change, determines much of who we become. Humanly-speaking, all of us, to a certain extent, want to resist it, to fight that change or even to pretend that it doesn't exist. But to do so is to shut ourselves up to the fact that change isn't our enemy. That even in the seasons of life where change is constant, beauty and hidden grace are still realities. It's really all in how we choose to view it. Accepting that change happens could prove to be a turning point in our lives - a door to freedom. The freedom to see through to God, to learn more about ourselves, to thank and to live...fully. Like the dormant bulbs in the cold earth, Grace never stops flowing. It may be hidden for a time, but it is always there. Because He is always there! And that thought alone is enough to carry anyone through the shifting seasons of life.