Transition – Julie Anetrini

This week in Christian history lots of things took place. Among those things, Massachusetts citizens created and observed a day of fasting and repentance for the Salem witch trials of 1692. It was promoted with a statement of a need for forgiveness with the purpose of hope that God would “show us what we know not, and help us, wherein we have done amiss, to do so no more.” Interestingly enough they connected not only a need of redemption of hearts, but also redemption of the land. Martin Luther King Jr. was born in Atlanta in 1929, and British Parliament prohibited the reading of the New Testament in English  by women and lower class citizens in 1543.  In reading these, and other events, along with hearing a recent lecture on Christian history regarding how population trends correlate with the outpouring of the manifestation of God’s presence through healing and miracles; it got me thinking about transition.

It seems that over and over we, the people of the earth have gone through great periods of transition. We can look all the way back to the days of Adam when he and Eve transitioned in their relationship with God when they chose to sin.  They did not have the same type of relationship with God as they had experienced since the day of their creation. Fear came in between them and God, and shame. Then, God created a physical boundary between them and the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil by placing the angels with flaming swords to guard the garden.  For the first time, mankind experienced the harsh reality of transition and confusion in knowledge. Adam and Eve  must have spent much time reviewing their decision; knowing what God had said and pondering what God had done as a result of their decisions. Confusion came in remembering the words of the serpent which we know caused doubt of God, and resulted in a new enmity between them and other creatures as a result of sin.  No longer was it easy to rule over all creatures and earth. As a result of sin, the earth became difficult to work with, not all animals were at peace with them, and their work was hard. Pain entered the world, along with new birth. So, in summation, Adam and Eve faced transition.

Despite all of this,God had a promise.  The tree of life would again be given to man.  It would just take a very long time (in our timeframe) to come to pass.  Many people from the time of Adam, until Mary had to wait for him to appear. Jesus is the tree of life.  So, here’s the question. If transition began when Adam and Eve sinned, and changed the relationship between them and God; separating them from the tree of life, what then changes when that tree of life has been restored? If God walked in the garden with Adam and Eve, and sin introduced confusion and death, difficulty, and enmity, should not all of this be restored in Christ?  Of course!  As a people we have been taught through time, that we are still living with a hard boundary line between us and the tree of life.  Yet, God took that away when he gave us Jesus!
Transition is supposed to give us light and revelation of the change abolishing separation with God and draw us closer to him!  Transition literally means “change from one position, state, stage, subject, concept, etc., toanother; change”!
One lecture I heard this week mentioned that “God really, really, wanted/wants kids!” And it’s so true. We just forget to look at the truth and we keep on keeping on as generations have before us.  When God brings about transition, do we see it in the light of its true purpose? The purpose is relationship change resulting in restoration and availability to the tree of life.  God really wanted us to receive from the tree of life.
God did everything possible to restore the relationship he created in the beginning with us on his end, and he removed the barrier, the veil between us and him at the death of Jesus. He gave us back the tree of life embodied in the sending of Jesus and demonstrated at the resurrection!
Originally transition changed the position of mankind from easily receiving from the tree of life, to life separated from that tree.  Now, I believe transition is an instrument or reminder from God to bring change in our hearts. Transition is meant to bring us from a position of striving separation, to receiving from the tree of life. – It is meant to bring us into and receive from the very presence of God. The Holy Spirit brings truth and life.  He is the instrument of change in transition.
God really wanted you. Are you a transitioning child in the family of God, who sits eating from the tree of life, listening to daddy? Or are you becoming childish in transition?
So, repeating the prayer from 1692: We repent Lord of our stubborn striving, and our false believing ways, and we ask God that we change as you intended so “that all iniquity may be put away, which hath stirred God’s holy jealousy against this land; that you would show us what we know not, and help us, wherein we have done amiss, to do so no more.” We choose to embrace transition Lord so you can change our heart position and breathe life into the land again in this season of transition.

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