Change is on the way. I see signs of it all around me as I go for my morning walks with my husband. The trees show it first, of course, their green leaves morphing to flaming shades of yellow, orange, gold and rust.
The park that overflowed with activity all summer is closed and shuttered for the season. 
Nearly all of the boats have been hauled inland for the winter, leaving the docks deserted. 
The boats look out of place standing forlornly on shore, sheathed in plastic blankets to weather the coming storms. 
Even the beach is braced for what’s coming with snow-fences lined up against the winter snowdrifts.
As beautiful as fall is, there’s something in me that panics a little at all these signs, longing for everything to stay the same. In my book Pilgrimage I wrote:
“Change is such a huge part of life that we should be used to it by now. Instead, we resist. We’re tearful on the first day of kindergarten, fearful on the first day of high school, overwhelmed as we start college. A new job, a new spouse, a new baby—all of these changes are regular parts of a normal life, yet each of these milestones inaugurates enormous changes.” 
Is it part of my human nature to resist, longing for everything to stay the same? I know it can’t. Pilgrimage tells about a season in my life when I experienced too many upheavals. But after traveling to Israel and walking in the footsteps of the heroes of my faith—Abraham, Sarah, Moses, David, and Jesus and His disciples—I realized that change is God’s template for our lives, not an anomaly. It’s how we grow in our spiritual walk, and how our faith grows. I returned home from my pilgrimage with these thoughts:
“Change will be good for me, not something to fear. It will strip away my self-sufficiency and self-reliance and force me to lean on God, to pray more, to trust Him, and to walk in faith with the One who invented change.”
The world around me is bracing for change, and I know that I must, too. Maybe God created the vivid changes of fall so we won’t be so surprised when it comes into our own lives but we’ll embrace it with joy, knowing that we serve an unchanging God.
