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I’ve written about transitions in HEARTLIGHT before. Life is filled with them. But some, quite frankly, are just simply bigger than others. At HEARTLIGHT we find ourselves in the middle of some big transitions, too. Moving to a bigger, faster, better server; getting more bandwidth; adding our own chat resources; trying to add a better mailing server for Today’s Verse; learning to divide the work load up more efficiently; etc. But as big and as important as those transitions are, they are simply transitions. But Paul and I are also going through some transitions!

    You see, Paul is moving back to the Austin area, but his family moved ahead of him. He and his wife have a new baby son. He misses them and his preschool daughter tremendously. I just got home from taking my oldest to college. My wife and I are thrilled for him. He is excited beyond imagining. We couldn’t be more pleased with what he has done, the kind of young man he is, but... we got home and his room was dark, his stuff was gone, and he is not there. Our life with him is forever changed: we know it and he knows it. I’d like to say I’ve handled this well, but to be honest, I’ve been a jerk about some things: I’ve been to bossy with my son because I could only think of all the things I hadn’t taught him yet instead of remembering all the things he has taught me, I’ve been impatient with my coworkers at church, I’ve been detached from the rest of my family, and I’ve been like a bear improperly awakened from hibernation toward Paul. The stress of transitions does that to us.

He will listen. He will love.

    Some of you who share in our HEARTLIGHT ministry have gone through much greater and more traumatic transitions. It humbles me to know how some of you rely on encouragement from our offering to God each week. Your transitions make ours pale in comparison.

    There was, however, one transition that insures that we have the ear of the Creator of the universe when we face our own. You see, God’s Son made the transition from the court of angels in the throne room of glory and entered the womb of woman to be placed in a manager and grow up in a carpenter’s shop and to be crucified on the cross by people he had formed in the wombs of their own mothers. This transition means he does care about our transitions. It means he understands the loneliness, heartbreak, rejection, abuse, derision, abandonment, and a host of other things that we feel while we are in the depths of our worst transitions.

    So when you find yourself in the middle of a transition that is simply overwhelming, don’t forget the One who never changes, yet who willingly went through the greatest of all transitions. He did it so that we could be confident that he hears us when we call. We can talk to him honestly and openly about our transition. He will listen. He will love. He will act. After all, he’s knows what it’s like to be caught in the tornado’s spin of transition.