Times of transition are difficult. When we move to a new place, we fear losing old friends. When we move to a new job or school, we worry our prior accomplishments will no longer matter. When we sense the world changing around us, with new political movements gaining traction and others declining, we worry that our own cherished causes will lose influence and become forgotten. These fears make us defensive and resistant to change.

Jesus came into the world to bring about the biggest transition in the history of the world. Before Jesus, humankind came to know many deep truths about God and human beings from the law, the prophets, and the mythologies of the great world religions. But when God became a human being, he invited us into a new kind of relationship—one that was not mediated through customs and stories but was founded on a direct encounter with God in the flesh.

This revolutionary transition was met with much resistance from those who had encountered much good in what came before Jesus and had staked their lives and livelihoods upon upholding it. And yet Jesus does not simply tell his religious opponents to “let go of the past and embrace change.” He reveals that he is, in fact, the source and origin of the very laws, traditions, and mythologies whose existence he seemed to threaten.

The world was made through Jesus, and everything good in the world exists because Jesus, Emmanuel, God-with-us, put it there. He came to perfect what was good in what came before him, not to abolish it. We do not need to fear losing the good things we currently possess, because the Lord of the future is also the source of everything good about the past. The prime mover and impetus of change is also the source of all the order, goodness, and stability that has ever existed.

When we face transition points in our lives, we, too, should entrust our future to Jesus. He will ensure that whatever is good about our past will remain with us until he brings it to perfect fulfillment.