Change

I was going through some photos recently and found some from the first and second grades. I looked unhappy. When my mother was still alive she told me that I didn't like new things and was wary until I figured out what was happening. That's still true and yet in many ways I've been the most adventurous of all of mom's children. I don't like change, but I think it's necessary.

I want to go back to the farm where my mother was raised and sleep in the attic in the brass bed that has been repainted many times. The farm and ranch is still in the family, but my uncle has made changes. The attic now has several rooms rather than one open space and there is actually a second bathroom in the house. I am glad they made changes and I know that several in the family made sure that my uncle knew he could change the house once he bought it from my grandparents. Yet even with that approval is a bit of regret.

The question with change is not whether we like it, but whether we are willing to make the changes as they're needed. I suspect many people are like me in not wanting things to change, but how we deal with that change is more important. Do we ask whether the change is for the better. Certainly in the old farm house a second bathroom comes in handy. There used to be fifteen or twenty of us at one time with one bathroom. The separate bedropoms are also nice. Sleeping five or six to a bed with the girls on one side of the attic and the boys on the other side was fun when I was around ten or younger. In my forties, the thought of sleeping with that many in one bed sends me to my savings account for the money for a hotel room.

Change happens for better and worse. But the constant in the change is our relationship with each other and with God. Some of my cousins and I were talking at our family reunion this summer about how much work our parents went to so that we could know each other. We just went on vacation and found another couple of sets of cousins at the farm. We ran around and had fun in the pasture, the river, riding the horses that were always around.

My parents made sure we had a relationship with our relatives. So, too, they gave me grounds for a good relationship with God. I knew that they were in church each Sunday and so were we. When they got paid, one of the first checks they wrote was a tithe to the church (and I mean a first-fruits tithe of 10%). We didn't have to believe the same things they did, they allowed each of us to grow and form our own opinions, but we were challenged to think and learn and educate ourselves.

One of my brothers has spent many years active in the nuclear disarmament movement to the extent of being arrested for civil disobedience. Another brother has been in the military. They share an apartment now. Differences and changes happen, they are a part of being human. Many are good. I give thanks for someone who enjoys working on cars everytime I take one into be fixed. Many may not be so good. But just because I don't always like change doesn't mean I should avoid it. And our differences can help make us stronger.