If it ain’t broke—don’t fix it. I love that maxim. I hate change.

A change came to our house last week that I can embrace. It makes life easier. For the five years we’ve had Savannah she has had no easy access to the two-foot gravel path around our house. We have no yard. We have no grass. It’s impossible to use an umbrella to walk around our house because the umbrella hits the outer wall of our house on one side and the neighbor’s fence on the other side. Still, during gales and snow storms, that strip of gravel circumvents walks and gives Savannah a place to do her business.

Savannah had a long, wobbly, rotting wooden ramp on one side of the house that would not support a person’s weight. It finally got so bad that even Savannah couldn’t use it.  I improvised steps at the back of the house by stacking unopened bags of gravel up to the level of the deck. It gave Savannah a way down and back up, but the bags became slippery after a few years and it scared her when she slid on them. I could go up and down the gravel bags by holding the rail of the deck on one side and the neighbor’s fence on the other side. But the deck rotted and broke apart leaving me nothing to hang on to. I fell down the gravel steps a couple of weeks ago.

Our landlord—the Church of Scotland—hired a company to tear out the old rotten wood and replace the ramp on one side with steps and the back deck and gravel bags on the other side with a smart new smaller deck and steps. A beautiful job and one that makes life easier for both Savannah and me. Finally, a change I can embrace! Of course, my favorite maxim is “if it ain’t broke—don’t fix it”—but the ramp and back deck were both “broke.”

Sigh. I suppose I must admit that change is inevitable—and sometimes it is for the best. But I still don’t have a cell phone. And I will continue to use my 12-year-old laptop with Windows 2007 and a plug-in keyboard because I wore out the keyboard on the computer itself by writing 45 Christian cozy mystery-romance-suspense books on it. I still hand turn a crank to whip egg whites into meringue and to open cans. I still use a handheld cheese grater. I will continue cooking in my cast iron pans and pots—as long as I have the strength to lift and carry them. Why change what works?

The changes God makes are good: “Wisdom and might are His, and He changes the times and seasons; He removes kings and raises up kings.” Daniel 2:20.

But God Himself does not change. “For I am the LORD, I do not change.” Malachi 3:6.

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