Sudden Change

Day by day, my wrinkles deepen. My hair whitens (that’s just a guess...) My energy wanes. 

But these changes are gradual. They sneak up and overtake me unawares, and I don’t recognise that I’m even in the midst of the earthquake that is my life.

I like the stealth of change which leaves me blissfully oblivious to its effect. Sudden change – not so keen on that.

Today I heard that a house near me is on the market. They have been good neighbours. Great neighbours even. We’ve grown accustomed to each others’ politics, jokes, and faces. 

I don’t want them to move away. I don’t want to start again with new neighbours. I am comfortable with the people I know. We understand each other. We accept each other’s foibles. We water each other’s plants. We take in each other’s bins.

I don’t want to start again.

I’m going to miss them. Miss the joking, the banter, the conversations in the fields, the waves as we pass on the roads. The shared moans and groans about internet speed – or lack thereof. 

I don’t like change.

But life is all about change. Only God is the same yesterday, today and forever. The rest of us slip and slide through time and space and on into eternity. 

Eternity. Forever. I hope I’ve been a good ambassador for Christ. These neighbours have heard me say things I shouldn’t have said, express opinions I shouldn’t have. Has that made me more real to them – or a hypocrite? 

I need God’s grace every minute, and I need his strength, and I need his courage to face another change. 

How does one face the changes life throws at you, without the steadying, consoling hand of God? I know my boat would have been swamped before now had I not had Jesus aboard with his hand on the tiller, steering me through the rough passages.

Looks like there’s another one on the horizon. Boo.

Red Sky

The rhythm of my day yesterday and today found me out with Dusty at sunset and sunrise. Both were breath-taking.

The frost was sharp this morning; the promise of a freeze was there last night. Walking westward last night, a blazing sun was setting through the stand of trees sending shards of golden light towards me. The horizon was etched in vibrant red. 

This morning the beauty was in the east. I was too early for any golden shards of light but what I had instead before me was a horizon of hot pink blending into yellow, purple, all sorts of shades across the thin line of the skyline. 

Faced with such beauty, the cold doesn’t bite so cruelly. 

God has given us a creation that is full of surprises, full of colours, textures, designs and patterns. I have been blessed to have a home in a rural area where light pollution doesn’t reach me, nor does air or noise pollution. The noises I hear as I walk early or late are the cries of the owl or the whine of the bats. 

I grew up with the noise of the busiest freeway in southern California drowning out the lazy chirp of the crickets. 

I don’t take this beauty for granted. Thank you, God.