Embracing Change

Change is hard.

My son recently visited and it took almost 10 days for one of the two cats to even begin to approach him. He was a stranger in the house.

My other son and his significant other recently had a baby. The cat, who took five years to warm up to Liz, isn't happy that the new little person gets all the attention. This cat, who we've barely ever seen, came out for our last visit and allowed total strangers to pet and hold him. Attention from strangers was apparently preferable to being ignored.

And now that we can start going places without face masks we have to retrain ourselves to think that being maskless is no longer solely a sign of rebellion.

This coming Sunday is Pentecost, when we celebrate the coming of the Holy Spirit.

Talk about change!

The apostles, presumably still processing the death and resurrection of Jesus, were gathered. There was wind, there was fire. They were suddenly talking in tongues. Others were hearing in their own tongues. And Peter, who throughout the Gospels appears as one of the most inept, naive people around, suddenly speaks with wisdom the words of Joel about the coming of the Holy Spirit.

Though the words that Peter spoke troubled people, he encouraged them to "change your hearts and lives." (Act 2: 38)

The Gospels and Epistles invite us to gratefully accept and embrace change, to welcome the kingdom of heaven.

Embrace the Holy Spirit, and welcome the change that can come into your lives.

--Ann Iona Warner