Andy's Blog: A Personal Word

May 2009 Archive

May 12, 2009

May. 12, 2009

When our son Matthew was three, we enrolled him a church pre-school program. He had been to the nursery and to Sunday School at church, but during the week had been at home. Dawn was working on the first day we were to take him, so I was the designated drop-off parent. We told Matthew that he was going to school and would make lots of new friends to play with. He got very quiet. We arrived at the church, and I took Matthew by the hand to lead him to his room. He was holding on tight in these strange surroundings.

When we got to the room, the teacher came to the door.  I introduced Matthew and myself and passed his hand from mine to hers. That did it. Matthew began to scream, “Daddy, Daddy don’t leave me!” He wrapped his arms around my leg like an octopus and wasn’t letting go. I reached down to peel him off my leg and gently pushed him into the room. The teacher closed the door, and I turned to leave. All the way down the hall, I could hear Matthew screaming, “Daddy, please don’t leave me!”

When I got home, I called Dawn and told her, “I will NEVER do that again. His first day of school is all yours!”

Change is hard. Transitions are tough. Moving from one thing in life to another is scary. 

The biblical story of the Exodus provides a paradigm. The Israelites were joyful as they escaped from slavery in the wilderness. They were headed for the promised land – a land that God would give them. But first they had to journey through the wilderness. In that no-man’s-land between what was, and what would be, they panicked and were ready to head back to slavery in Egypt. “Better what we know, than what we can’t yet realize.”

For every transition in life, there is this wilderness time between what was and what is yet to be. The promise isn’t realized all at once. It takes a journey to get there. If we are to grow, change is inevitable. Life doesn’t let us sit still. 

The key is to move forward and to trust God. In the wilderness, God led his people with a cloud during the day and a pillar of fire at night. No matter what the journey, God journeys with us. He points us to new promise and fulfillment. 

Both of our children are graduating this week. Another transition. But we have learned how to handle them better.

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