Pastor’s Corner: Changing

June 16, 2021

When my computer starts up, it chooses an image randomly from a collection of photos as the background images for my screens. They are mostly photos I’ve taken over the years, so I’m likely to see flowers, churches, mountains, lava, waves, and of course friends and family.

This morning the computer selected a Christmas pageant photo from a few years ago. Beneath the paper angels and the Bethlehem star I see many familiar faces wearing wings and crowns and flowing robes. The faces are… younger, much younger… than the ones I’ve seen most recently on that same screen for Sunday School Zoom gatherings.

My, how time (like an angel) flies.

I may be a trifle obsessed with growth and change these days. I’m truly aching for the change from life in a pandemic to life after a pandemic. I recently saw my daughter earn the same Master’s degree I hold; my son will have completed his sometime before the end of the year.

My, how time (like an angel) flies.

People are usually said to dislike change. A better description I’ve heard is that they dislike the loss that comes with much of change. The adorable faces frozen on my screen will never be quite the same again. My daughter faces the change from church leadership student to church leader. My son will choose his next steps from this new spot.

We also will choose our direction from where we are, in the light of our experiences from the day of our birth to this. We will choose based on what we think is right and good, and we will choose, I hope and pray, based on what we think God believes is right and good.

We don’t get to stay with those photos, frozen in time. We change. We grow. We move into the future.

With aloha,

Pastor Eric

Photo of blossoming and budded orchids by Eric Anderson.