Late August and early September is a huge transition time for many of us. Most of  the transition has to do with kids but there’s an awful lot of other types of transition going on as well.

Let’s start with some of the incidental stuff, summer activities for example. They come to a screeching halt. Swimming pools close. Day camps close. Full activity camps go into weekend only mode. Ice cream trucks stop coming around. Seashore and mountain resorts are preparing to close with their end of season sales. Summer flowers are beginning to be replaced with hardy mums and back to school sales are everywhere.

Oh yes, back to school sales, now that’s the work of a big transition. It’s the mark of a transition from summer fun to school work, learning, discipline. For first time students it’s a gigantic transition. I had a kindergarten teacher tell me that the biggest challenge in teaching full day kindergarten was keeping the kids awake in the afternoon. Yes, it’s a really big change for our youngsters’ lives.

However, the little guys are not the only ones. Moving from elementary school to middle school is big. So is moving from middle to high school. They are all life changing transitions but the biggest one is from high school to college – from house to a dorm in many cases. From family to a roommate you never met before, from home cooking to a cafeteria, from somebody telling you what to do to being left to your own devices. It really is life changing and thank heavens this transition usually works out fine as most of us who have been through it will testify.

This time period is also a transition time for our church. Summer’s ending and we’re ready to buckle up and get back to the privilege of doing God’s work, building our faith, reaching our community with God’s love and making each of us better disciples. We’ve had a busy summer at Green Tree but the fall will see even more activity, but it’s a healthy activity. We’ll be working with our community with breakfasts and car washes and spaghetti suppers and a blessings box. We’ll be participating in the Crop Walk and Upper Providence Community Day. We’ll be focused on our faith with Love Feast and our service by helping with the Disaster Relief Auction. We’ll be reaching out with our “Welcome to Green Tree” new member class. We’ll be experiencing joyful worship as our choirs add to the beauty of our dedicated time in God’s presence

Transitions aren’t bad things.  They can be outstanding, as long as you take God with you.

Pastor Rod