Transition:  (1.) The act or state of passing from one place, condition, or action to another; change.  (2.) The time, period, or place of such passage.  (Funk & Wagnalls Standard Desk Dictionary)

*****

Along with the masses, I went to see "The Passion of Christ" this week.  One reality stood out so vividly to me:  the whole movie was a picture, a story, of transition.  Christ was transitioning from His earthly ministry and body back into His heavenly Kingdom and position.

I kept saying to myself, "How could He have gone through this?  How?  It was too much.  He did too much!"

And yet He did it "because of the joy He knew would be His afterward." (Hebrews 12:2)  His Father had led Him to this place - had actually chosen this season for Him - and Jesus agreed to walk through to the other side.

God has put before many of us dreams and visions of His glory which excede all thought or comprehension.  He has shown us places of joy and love that take our breath away.  And yet a season of transition always stands between where we are, and where He wants to take us.  Something must be left behind in order to go on.

Some of us are in the garden, crying out in pain and confusion before the Lord, "My Father!  If it is possible, let this cup of suffering be taken away from me!"  We don't understand how we can do what He has asked.  And yet know this:  the moment we say with Jesus, "I want Your will, not mine," mighty and glorious grace is released for the journey ahead.  Much of the battle is won with these few words.  (Matt. 26:39)

Some of us are taking our first steps in this passage of change.  Some have been "moving through" for what seems like forever.  Some are to the place of clinging to the cross before us, knowing that the victory is at hand.

Wherever you might be standing right now, remember this, "He will take these weak mortal bodies of ours and change them into glorious bodies like His own, using the same mighty power that He will use to conquer everything, everywhere." (Phil. 3:21)

I pray as Paul did in Ephesians 1 that we would understand the wonderful future He has promised to us whom He has called.  That we would realize what a rich and glorious inheritance awaits us.

Press on!  Move through!  Have faith! 

"As a result, I can really know Christ and experience the mighty power that raised Him from the dead.  I can learn what it means to suffer with Him, sharing in His death, so that, somehow, I can experience the resurrection from the dead!" (Phil. 3:10-11)

 

Amy