Yesterday we were doing the Mayberry Thing. We had
several errands to attend to and grocery shopping to
accomplish so we decided to divide and conquer. Kent
dropped me off at the grocery store and He and Hattie
went to charge through the errands.

I finished quite some time before they did and so stood
and watched through the window for perhaps 20 minutes
until they arrived to pick me up. An acquaintance
came through the grocery store doors and we were talking
about change. She brought the subject up and as usual
it had to do with our children. She was just chatting
about how quickly they change and how hard it can be
to go with the changes.

How apt to the moment. I had just been standing there
deep in thought over the idea of change. The small
changes that come into our lives seem to upset our
equilibrium more than the large changes. I was just
reeling from one of those changes.

A few minutes earlier, when I was putting my groceries
on the conveyor belt, I looked up to notice that the
checker was bagging them into plastic bags. No big
deal, I like paper, but once in a while they forget
to ask which I prefer and I am not going to make a
big deal about it. But then I noticed a sign that
said, "If you need help carrying your groceries to
your car, please let us know."(Not an exact quote.)
And then I noticed that there were turn tables at the
end of the checkout line, just like at Wal-Mart, and-
horror of horrors, NO PAPER BAGS. None. Zilch. Nada.

I have shopped at this store now for 15 and 1/2 years.
There have always been automatic carryout and paper bags.
I don't like this change.

Last night at the family birthday party we held for my
sister and my Uncle Jim, we discussed methods of letting
the store know that we don't like these changes. Maybe
a sit-in? Maybe a call to the management? Should we
leave notes in the suggestion box.

Why should I (we) be so disturbed by this really relatively
small change in our lives. Maybe it is because when the
big, sometimes, horrifying changes come, there is nothing
we can do. We must just wrap our minds around them and
carry on. And it is the small, everyday routines that
allow us to carry on. They give life the rhythm and
comfortability we depend on. So, when the small is changed,
we throw back our heads and howl. Here, though, we can do
something. Here we have power. Here we can fight for
sameness.

Somethings though, never change.

Hebrew 13:8
Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever.

And so here we must do the opposite of our natures. We must
take that to the bank and deposit it. We have to let the
large take precedence over the small and mundane. But, I
bet the grocery stores in the New Heaven and New Earth have
paper bags!