Change for Change's Sake

My 91 year-old Grandfather has a treasure chest in his basement! At least, that's what we grand kids always considered it! Descend the creaky wooden stairs to the basement, and pull the long string at the bottom to turn on the lights, and across the neat, well organized workshop sits a large chest freezer. On top sits a cloth-covered anvil which holds the chest shut. The sealing mechanism on the freezer broke years ago, before I can even remember, and the anvil is still there today! Granddaddy would escort us children over, remove the anvil, and the chest would magically open with a frosty cloud revealing the "treasure" inside! What could get a kid so excited about a freezer? Well, treats, of course! Granddaddy always kept his freezer stocked with Hostess products that he would buy at the local bakery store. He would get them in large quantities for very cheap whenever they would bake too many, or if they were "day old". Then, he'd just freeze them for us to enjoy. Honey buns and chocolate cupcakes (with the little swirl on top), Twinkies and Ho-Ho's were always in the freezer! I don't think there was ever a time when my brother and I visited as children that we didn't get to select something from that treasure chest! What bliss!! Of course, I can't speak for my parents who then had to deal with our sugar buzz for the rest of the day!

Recently, I was visiting Grandaddy and asked him if he had any treats in the freezer that the kids could select. To my astonishment, he said that he had not stocked any such goodies for years! WHAT? No honey buns??! No Hostess cupcakes with the little swirl and the cream inside? Not a single Ho-Ho?! Why, this is just not right, I declared! The treasure chest simply MUST have treasure! It's not natural! Grandaddy chuckled, of course, at my dismay, and I was playing it up for his benefit. But. . . there was a part of me that, deep down, was really upset, not that the kids would be denied a sugary treat, but that the familiar had changed! I can remember feeling the same way when the Roanoke Wiener Stand gutted their downtown store, removing the old wrap-around, formica counters and stools, and replaced them with modern fixtures and stand-and-eat counters! The walls now depicted a mural painted by a local artist and not the old racks of Wrigley's gum, candies and other wares. Cokes sold in the little glass bottles were no longer offered. The food remained the same, but the atmosphere just didn't have the same feel, and I felt sad by it.

What's going on with me, I thought? Am I just turning into one of those cranky old people who sit around a talk about the "good old days?" And I thought about where these feeling may be rooted. I think that humans are, at their deepest level, creatures of habit. After all, when God created Adam and Eve, the garden was a predictable place. Not boring, just predictably peaceful and delightful. It was perfect. It had a routine. Adam and Eve knew that each day would bring new delights and surprises, but they were in the context of their perfect, familiar garden, and each evening God would personally visit and they could share their day's adventures with Him on their walk. "Change" to Adam and Eve always meant something positive and exciting! A new flower is discovered! A berry is found that is sweeter than any prior! They learn a new skill, or invent a new game together! But when sin entered into the picture, suddenly their predictable, familiar lives were thrust into the realm of constant negative change and unfamiliarity! How frightened they must have felt! Suddenly, change did not always mean change for the better! Change had immediate negative implications as they walked out of their beautiful garden into a completely different world full of hostility, pain and confusion! And most importantly, an inward change had taken place. Their hearts were darkened by sin. They were afraid of God. They were ashamed.

Thus began our love-hate relationship with change! We love positive change -- a baby learns to walk, a fresh coat of paint brightens an old room, a medicine cures an illness. But negative change hurts us deeply at times. A friend moves away. A job is lost. An incurable illness strikes a loved one. A crime takes place. A parent dies. John the Baptist had the awesome job, however, of heralding the greatest positive change ever to come! He shouted "Change"! "Repent!" For the Kingdom of Heaven was coming! Jesus embodies change -- positive change. One could say that He changed the way the people thought about change! The people wanted to change their circumstances. They wanted to end Roman oppression. But Christ showed them that inward, not outward, change is required. Our biggest enemy isn't "out there" -- it's us! It's who's sitting on the throne of our heart, not the throne of our country, that needs attention! Our outward circumstances are not going to be perfected in this life, but our inward heart change will enable us to live here with the same peace that Adam & Eve had despite them!

When I cringe at the things I don't like being changed, I am really longing for "the good old days" that Adam and Eve had in the garden! I am longing for heaven and mourning the effects of sin. When I felt sad about honey buns not being in my Granddaddy's freezer, what I was really feeling was the painful knowledge that I know that one day my Grandaddy will not be in that house! I pictured myself opening his door, like I opened his freezer, and not finding what has always been there. But THANKS BE TO GOD who has given us Jesus Christ. For I can handle the negative changes in this life IF I ALLOW GOD TO CHANGE MY HEART! Faith gives me the ability to weather the rough changes because I am confident in what lies ahead! I will mourn, but not as those who have no hope! I will weep, but joy comes in the morning! I can look forward to God's upcoming, ultimate change to all of creation when Christ returns and I can finally taste of what Adam and Eve lost, knowing that it will never be lost again! This is why we preach to the nations. This is why we long for our children and our family and friends to know Christ! For we know the hope we have through Christ is true, and it changes everything in this life and the next! Change for Change's sake? Yes! God changes our hearts so that we might know His peace in this life, and participate in the final change when one day death is swallowed up in life! "Change!" we shout like John. "So that you will be changed!"

Behold! I tell you a mystery. We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we shall be changed. For this perishable body must put on the imperishable, and this mortal body must put on immortality. When the perishable puts on the imperishable, and the mortal puts on immortality, then shall come to pass the saying that is written: "Death is swallowed up in victory." "O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?" The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, my beloved brothers, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain. 1 Corinthians 15:51-58