Scene Changes
Dislike of change starts early in life. One of a child’s first lessons about self control comes when he is playing happily and Mama and Daddy say it is time to do something else.
Sometimes that “something else” that Mama and Daddy have in mind is even more fun and satisfying than what the child is already doing. Still, it is hard for us humans, whether young or old, to let go of what is in the here and now and trust a wise parent to move us on to something else, even if that something else is better.
During our cruise in Alaska in late August, I gazed out the window one quiet morning and watched the changing scenes.
My first photo that morning revealed a break in a cloud where light illumined a patch of forest.
Soon the clouds opened up and revealed blue sky.
By 8:00 a.m. the world had turned to gray.
And by 8:18 a.m. the clouds were breaking up again.
As I looked out the window, I thought of words from an old hymn: “each changing future scene . . .” Then more words came to my heart:
My Jesus, as Thou wilt! Oh, may Thy will be mine!
Each changing future scene I gladly trust with Thee:
Straight to my home above I travel calmly on,
And sing, in life or death, my Lord, Thy will be done!
The hymn is “My Jesus, As Thou Wilt,” written by Benjamin Schmolck circa 1704. The melody is from an opera by Carl M. von Weber.
I am excited this morning because play practice starts today! This is my sixteenth year with the Homeschool Dramatic Society (HDS), led by our daughter Mary Evelyn McCurdy. I’m looking forward to practicing with and then watching a cast of 113 homeschoolers perform “Free at Last, a Story of the Underground Railroad, 1851.” If you are anywhere close to Cookeville, Tennessee, on the weekend of September 18-20, we would love to see you there.
I expect to be watching a lot of scene changes for the next two weeks. I doubt they will all go smoothly.
When we stop and realize Who is changing the scenes in our real lives and our real world, we really can “travel calmly on, and sing in life or death, my Lord, Thy will be done!”
Peace be to you all who are in Christ.
1 Peter 5:14, NASB