More adventures with Sally!

A road in the San Bernardino Mountains

I know you’ve
experienced sudden changes in your environment. You’ve lost a friend or family
member or maybe had a sickness that threatened your life. You might, right now, be in a bit of shock from a big
change.

When we moved to
the mountains, I went from feeling sand between my toes to having snowflakes in
my hair. I moved from a tent to a log cabin and learned to ski during P.E.
class rather than go surfing.

Lake Arrowhead
became a favorite place for me when we moved to the San Bernardino Mountains.
The water never warmed up, but it didn’t bother me because I was used to the
cold water of the Pacific Ocean. The much shallower lakes, such as Rainbow and
Green Valley Lake, felt warmer so they became favorite places to swim.

Lake Arrowhead

I loved the mountains,
but often sat on the edge of it to gaze out to the distant ocean where I had
left so many familiar sea friends.

While living on
that mountain I entered high school, and I knew I was really growing up. Lots
of changes came all at once.

The blue tang
knows about changes. It starts out sunshine yellow and turns royal blue as it
grows up. When I first saw it, I didn’t know the two fish belonged to the same
species. Changing color is one of the
ways nature has of telling older fish that a fish is still young. When the tang
turns blue, it’s an adult.

This might be as
if you turned pink to indicate that you were ready to ride a bike or you turned
purple to notify your parents that you wanted to get your driver’s license! That’s
a crazy idea for people, but it works for fish.

Blue tangs

Changes come to
divers too. I started diving in 25 feet of calm, clear water. I thought I would
always be satisfied to do this, but somewhere my desire changed. I felt willing
to take bigger risks in order to see more. I practiced dive skills until I knew
how to handle myself and my gear. When I felt ready to dive deeper, I headed
out to the wall, which is the edge of the world. I was scared, but I wanted to
see all the animals and plants that clung to every square inch of the wall. I
could only stay a short time on any dive, but I could go back another day.

I learned that one
thing is certain: even in the reef, things change. Change means I have to
adjust again and again. The other thing that I discovered was that God doesn’t change. His love is always the
same. His ability and desire to help me is constant and He will stay by me when
I’m adjusting to another one of those changes.