Thoughts on change...

Four years ago today we landed in Montevideo, exhausted but extremely happy to be here – finally – after many months of hoping and planning and preparing. We had no way of knowing on that clear and cool late autumn morning, how much life would change in those next weeks (with news of the break-in at our house in SC, where packed boxes were waiting to be shipped) or in the next months and years (with ups and downs in ministries we planned to be involved in and others that we had not planned on but that our Loving Shepherd had ordained for us).

We immediately started immigration paperwork for the family – and very quickly discovered that shipping plans were not what we had been led to believe they would be. Then, because we had to return to SC (five weeks after our arrival) in order to sort through and sell or donate most of what we’d been planning to ship, our anniversary date of arrival in Uruguay changed to September 2, 2013.

And all of that was only the beginning of our roller coaster ride... Change – more often than not unexpected – very quickly began to touch every area of our life: family, schooling, living quarters, church, work, friendships...

As you pray, please remember our Little People especially!

These two have certainly grown and changed since late 2013!

Our Loving Shepherd is undoubtedly at work: not only guiding what we thought we came to do but also – more importantly – molding us. And that molding often takes forms we were not planning on and at times would prefer not to choose! But we are HIS work, and HE remains faithful. Looking back, we can be thankful:

He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him over for us all, how will He not also with Him freely give us all things [including the ability to rejoice in unexpected change]?

(Romans 8)

And I again find myself returning to thoughts I’ve posted before.

Periods of night-time wakefulness can be profitable times to think...and pray...and recognize that God is lovingly at work in our lives. In the midst of my foggy, sleep-deprived state, He gently reminds me of great truths He has used to comfort me in the past: None of these circumstances come as a surprise to Him; as my loving and all-wise Father, He has ordained them!

These difficulties are part of the “all things” He is causing to work together for our good. After all, we have been called according to His purpose, and He has determined the boundaries of that purpose: Those who know Christ personally as Savior from sin and its eternal penalty can rejoice that God will conform us to the image of Christ, the only perfect Person who has ever lived on this planet! The ultimate result will be that HE, the Son, will be glorified; He will be the pre-eminent one among many who have been made like Him – they are called brethren! (cf. Romans 8)

This conformity to Christ’s image comes about through the “all things” – including sleepless nights, fussy children, runny noses, and infinitely more serious situations that try us to the depths of our beings as parents... God has predetermined this perfecting; it is His purpose – it will happen! He loves us that much!

As I renew my mind with these truths, the Author comforts me; He gives me hope in the depths of the night when I am tempted by despairing thoughts... So... Don’t feel sorry for us as you read this. If you know God, He is also using “all things” in your life to conform you to the image of His Son! “All things” in your life probably look quite different from “all things” in mine, but God is just as certainly at work in your life if you are His child. He loves you!