Change is difficult for me.  I just don’t like it.

Unfortunately, life is all about change–nothing stays the same (except God). I should learn to roll with what life brings me.

But I don’t have to like it, or do I?

About a month ago, I woke up with a huge truck carrying a large tractor on the back of it, in front of my house. And I thought to myself, what’s this truck doing here? There’s nowhere for him to go. I live on a cul-de-sac. He’s obviously lost!

You know how sometimes you ask a question but don’t want to know the answer? Yeah, well, this was one of those times.

Come to find out the truck wasn’t lost, in fact, it was in my neighborhood on purpose– to drop off that large tractor. An investor bought the property behind my house and has decided to build another subdivision.

In an instant, all the beautiful woods behind my house are gone…GONE!

For the past two weeks I’ve heard, BANG, CRASH, GRRRR and many other sounds I don’t know how to describe. (Although, I’m sure my six-year-old nephew would know how to make every one of them!)

My German shepherds are like fits of anxiety on steroids because they too don’t like change or loud noises. They run from one room to the next barking at invisible attackers because it sounds like they could tear through the walls at any moment.

But the worst part is looking in my backyard after the workers have left for the day, and seeing the vast emptiness of nothing.

In those woods once lived a family of deer that from time to time would visit. One time I came home to a doe standing in my driveway. She didn’t want to move. She looked up at me like I was intruding on her space. I relented and waited. Eventually, she trotted off to the woods.

My husband has seen the buck standing in the middle of the cul-de-sac. It’s amazing when you see nature that up close and personal. Keep in mind, though, I live in the middle of a large metropolitan city. Deer hanging out in your front yard is not the norm!

So, where has that family of deer moved to? I wonder.

I saw a baby deer wandering the neighborhood on my walk the other day. I waited to see if his family was around too but it turned and ran off the other way.

It makes me sad sometimes to see all the changes that are happening and I think does it need to?

Laura Story wrote a song called Blessings and every time I hear it I feel like she’s singing directly to me. She asks the question– what if the trials of our life are really God’s blessings in disguise?

“What is the trials of this life, the rain, the storms, the hardest nights…are Your mercies in disguise?” – Laura Story, Blessings

What if what we experience today are the blessings of tomorrow? What if after all the tears, the anger, the fighting, the pain we find something even greater than all we can imagine or dream.

Laura goes on to remind us that “this is not our home.”

Where we live right now is not our home. One-day God will bring us home, and there will be much singing, dancing and celebrating. But I’m, also, confident I will see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living! God promises us heaven on earth.

I have to remember that God is with me every moment of every day. All I have to do is reach out to Him, and He will answer me. I believe in His goodness and His blessings. I believe He is greater than any of my circumstances– even a large tractor tearing down my woods!

Thank you, Lord, for all my blessings, even those that at the time don’t feel like they are. I love You and believe You today for everything.

Amen.