Change

   We are about to embark on some big changes at our church, an old building torn down and the remaining building in some disarray from the construction process of a new building. Change is a strange dichotomy with children. They are constantly changing, yet when they see things around them change, it is disconcerting to them. As a parent and an adult, watching children change is shocking some how. I feel just the same, well a little more tired, but essentially the same and yet time must have moved on because the babies I remember being baptized, walked forward today for their first holy communion. How in the course of such a short time can that baby be old enough for first holy communion? How can, “Wow, you lost your first tooth” change to, “Wow, you received your first diploma” so fast?

   That is what happens whether we like it or not, everything changes. It seems to be our nature to want everything around us to stay unchanged. I am reminded of the account of the transfiguration in Luke 9. The disciples response was to stay right there with Jesus, Moses and Elijah forever, not to change a thing. God didn’t allow it; they had to return to life and the changes that come with it.

   Children sometimes become anxious when things that once were “always that way” are moved and shifted. They want the same routine, the same room, the same teacher, the same snack. We tend to think only the littlest ones need these routines, but our teens seem to need it more than any others. Perhaps it is because their personal lives are in a season of many changes, that they are particularly vulnerable to anxiety regarding change. While they feel the same on the inside, they are in the midst of a lot of changes on the outside of their lives. They are faced with changing schools every three or four years, driving, working, finding colleges and living away from the people they have always lived with, starting what they consider their real life. It’s a lot to juggle.

   We need to be sensitive to leaving a few things anchored. We need to remind them as our church buildings change that a church is not a building, a church is the people who make up the community inside the building. We, the adults, are all still here in the building making the same snacks, playing the same games and praying the same prayers for them and for everyone. God’s love for them is unchanging. This is still our church on the inside, it’s just the outside that is changing. Assure them that during the beginning, middle and end of all changes God is with us, a steadfast presence.