By: Lynn Elrod
I like to begin my mornings, outside on the porch with a cup of coffee (actually, it’s more
like a cup of creamer with a little coffee added), my little Mini Aussie curled up in a
nearby chair, and my favorite author’s daily devotional. Often the sun is just coming up
and I get to see and hear my world wake up.
At this early hour, I get to see the landscape emerge and take shape out of the
darkness. I get to hear lots of different kinds of birds noisily greeting the new day. As
the seasons progress the barren fields slowly turn from the slumber of winter and begin
to turn green, knowing that soon those greens will tassel and silk, bloom and pod, then
to mature and dry in time for the harvest.
I marvel at how God is constantly painting a new, ever changing masterpiece on the
land and in the sky. I have come to realize that one can never really see the same sky
twice. The clouds you just observed have now billowed into some new shape or
comtinued to slide across the horizon and have dissolved and disappeared in the
moments while you were looking away. God never stops his creative work. The
Creator is always changing his creation.
We’ve all heard the old adage: “The only thing constant is change.” It seems to be true.
Change happens in our world, in our culture with alarming speed. And change is
unsettling at best; at its worst it is fear inducing.
It is human nature to take comfort in the familiar. An unknown future is something most
of us would prefer to avoid. There’s an old idiom that goes like this: “Better the devil
you know than the devil you don’t.”
I’ll admit that I dislike change as much as the next person and right now our church is
facing some big changes. It’s change that we didn’t ask for, change that we would like
to have avoided. It’s change I couldn’t control followed by a future that I have little
influence over.
It’s just a thought, but that old adage about change being the only constant, is what the
world says. And like most of what the world says, while there is a grain of truth in it, it’s
only partly true. And a half truth is about the same as a lie, don’t you think? People tell
half truths to get their audience to come to a different conclusion than the one they
would reach if they knew the whole truth.
The Bible can always be counted on to tell us the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but
the truth. (Hebrews 13:8) “Jesus is the same yesterday, today, and forever.”
An old hymn sums it up well:
Will your anchor hold in the storms of life,
When the clouds unfold their wings of strife?
When the strong tides lift, and the cables strain,
Will your anchor drift or firm remain?
Chorus:
We have an anchor that keeps the soul
Steadfast and sure while the billows roll,
Fastened to the rock which cannot move,
Grounded firm and deep in the Savior’s love.
I am reassured and comforted knowing that my Jesus remains unchanged, unfazed by
events or trends, that his promises have not been altered nor have they expired. And
therefore the future he promises remains unchanged,
It’s just a thought, but that assurance puts our current changes in a different
perspective. The unknown future isn’t as daunting when I realize that my changeless
Jesus has already seen and visited my future.
But it’s just a thought. What do you think?
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