Someone has suggested that Adam turned to Eve as they were leaving the Garden of Eden and said “My dear, we are in a time of transition.”

Probably not, but it would have been appropriate and the world has been in a continual time of transition ever since. Our happiness, our peace of mind, and it wouldn’t be too strong to say even our salvation, depend on how well we adapt to transition.

Transitions happen on many levels. My grandchildren are in a hurry to reach the age where they can join the youth group at church (two of them are already there), to get a driver’s license (one has his, another is taking drive’s ed) and all the other new things that become available to them as they get older. Grandpa wishes the pages on the calendar wouldn’t turn quite so rapidly.

Fall is in the air, many of our songbirds have left, harvest is nearing completion, frost is forecast for tonight. We know winter is coming, but we don’t know just what it will be like. This will be my 79th winter, no two have been the same.

Children are going back to school. We are all going to be spending a lot more time indoors in the coming moths. How is that going to work when the COVID virus is still active.? No one knows.

COVID makes everything a little more uncertain than it used to be. But when was life ever predictable? This time will pass; what will our world look like afterwards? Anyone who claims to know is not to be trusted.

About 200 years ago, Henry Lyte wrote:

Change and decay in all around I see;
O Thou who changest not, abide with me.*

Faith in our unchanging God and Saviour is all we have to hold on to that will enable us to safely ride out the transition to an unknown future. Any kind of transition, including the transition from time to eternity.

*Last part of the second verse of Abide With Me, by Henry F. Lyte, 1793-1847