Going with the flow

"I have been sent to you with bad news"

1 Kings 14:6

I got some news the other day.  Sad news.  A friend of mine is moving.  Her husband is being transferred.

I'll miss them.  We all went to church together, and I'll miss seeing them on a regular basis.  It's even possible I'll never see them again.  Schedules are so busy and life is unpredictable.  I mean, you never can tell, right?

The news was sudden, yet it surprised me how much it threw me.  It's not as life-changing as other events, but it reminded me of how little we can count on in this world.  Every day there is the potential for change.  Huge change.  Job changes, death of a loved one, car accidents, frightening illnesses.  The people and places in our lives are not forever.

Does that give you pause?  Well, it's meant to.  But I have a close friend who is fond of saying, "If you belong to God, change is always in your favor."

I love that sentiment.  Reminds me that God is in control.  Makes me think of Joseph in the Book of Genesis.  Threatened and then abandoned by his brothers.  Forced to be a slave.  Wrongly accused and imprisoned, and then forgotten.  Well, forgotten by everyone but God.

On the contrary ~ God had everything well in hand.  Every change in Joseph's life was for good.  And not just for Joseph's good, but for his family, and indeed, for all the nation of Egypt.

It's foolish of me to find peace in constancy.  That's too unreliable.  Soon my friend will be gone, and we will find ourselves communicating in writing every once in awhile, and I'll settle in again.  I've got plenty of friends at church ~ lovely people that I enjoy talking with.  So everything will be fine.  Until the next big change in my life.

It all depends on my location.  The storms won't faze me if I'm in the boat with Him.

~ "He calms the storm, 

  so that its waves are still" ~

Psalm 107:29