It's a Change

With the wedding in less than three weeks, I am in the process of packing up my room. I've already boxed up half of my million books and most of my winter clothes. Now I'm on to the rest of my books, my movies, my music, my shoes, the rest of my clothes, and various other things. It's difficult, I will say, to go through years of pictures, school projects, AWANA awards, old Teddy bears and dolls and slowly pack up my memories and pieces of my life. It's quite a change.

Today, while I boxed up more of my belongings, I thought of how different my life will be one month from now. I will be a wife. I will have new responsibiities and obligations. It will be my duty to love and care for Grant, to meet his needs, to encourage him, follow him, and bring him honor with the way I live and keep his home. It's a change....but it's a beautiful one!

Life is full of changes. Birthdays, graduations, weddings, every phase of life has its share of newness. Every season brings about a new thing. Summer brings the heat and the excitement of family vacations, camp, and swimming pools! Autumn brings a chill in the air and colorful leaves. Winter brings the snow and the holidays. And then there's spring, where everything comes to life and is brand new. There are changes everywhere. So with spring in the air and my wedding two and half weeks away, I'm definitely thinking about change. But today, while packing and preparing to move, I thought of the biggest and most delightful change - salvation.

I've blogged about my testimony and the beautiful, redeeming love of our God throughout this blog, likening it to several areas of an engagement and a wedding, and it's funny how so much of the process is just like salvation. Having your man propose, getting engaged, sending out the invitations - there are so many reminders of God's goodness and grace...including packing up, moving, and beginning a new life with your husband/wife.

How? you may ask.

Well, just like my life will change when I say "I do" next month, my life changed years ago when I said "I do" to Jesus Christ. When I asked Jesus Christ to forgive me and come into my heart, my whole life changed. My desires changed. My responsibilities changed. My thoughts changed. I wasn't my own anymore, but belonged to Christ. I became His property. Every aspect of my life changed the day I was saved. And in like manner, every aspect of my life will change next month when I become Grant's wife. I will, then, have to follow him and obey him. My desires will be to please and make him happy instead of myself. My body will belong to him. My life will resolve around him and our life together. I will become his help meet, his companion....his wife. My home will be his home. I will leave my family and things that I am used to and am comfortable with, and will step out on faith and out of my comfort zone into a whole new world.

THAT is a change!

But it is a beautiful change! It is difficult to walk by faith and trust God. It is difficult to let Him grow you. He stretches you. He bends you.....but He doesn't break you. :) Change is hard. But change is good for us. It matures us. It helps us. It teaches us.

.....and change? Well, it SAVES us too!

2 Corinthians 5:17
Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.