By Judy Villanueva

Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.  (Hebrews 13:8)

The grass withers, the flower fades,
  But the word of our God stands forever. (Isaiah 40:8)

With my arms full of laundry, I walked past the three senior portraits that hung on our family room wall.  They seemed to mark an ending to what was our family life in that home…playing in the rain,  family dinners, long walks, growing-up talks, and stacks upon stacks of love!  I sat down to pause and enjoy the faces of these precious ones and, as I did, was overtaken by a wave of emotion.  So, I sat there and cried and remembered and smiled and cried a little more.  It had been a wonderful life and I would miss it.  But, life was changing and much as I wanted to hang on to what had been, I could feel God beckoning me forward.  It was as though He said, “Wasn’t it so good?  But, daughter, what your heart most needs is not your little ones back in your arms.  Life is changing and you can let it —because I am with you.”

Change.  It is a constant…steady and unpredictable.  Some of it is welcomed and some of it, not.  It is God’s design.  With open arms we welcome positive changes and, not surprising, brace against life’s strenuous shifts. We may run to the altar to be wed but will certainly drag our feet into the storm.  Promising or threatening, blessed or cursed, we tend to evaluate life’s movements as qualitatively good or bad.

What is sure is that change is the nature of our existence and the real question is, are we learning to trust God in and through the seasons and shifts that move us from birth to death?

Are our roots of faith sinking more deeply into the love of God?  Are we learning that what our hearts need most is God?  Hopefully, we are seeking to know Him better because knowing God, more than anything, strengthens and sustains us through all of  life’s changes!  Think about the implications, for example, of God’s immutability.

He does not change.   The fact that He is the same yesterday, today and forever offers us peace and power!  God is always and completely Himself without shadow or variation. That God does not change means that His love for us will forever remain true!  It means that He is not fickle or moody and will never change His mind about anything.  His faithfulness will not and cannot waiver…EVER!  When God said that He would never leave or forsake us, He meant it as a permanent, fixed and “without end” reality.

We can count on Him forever!

And, all of this means that as  life continues to change, we can let it  because God is here with us and, always will be!  

“Father,  to think of Your unchanging nature fills my mind and heart.  I feel so grateful that I can count on Your love forever!  In the midst of a life that changes constantly, I feel the deep comfort that comes from knowing that You are unchanging.  Amen.”

What about you?

How are you handling the changes in your life?  Are you holding tightly or lightly?

Are you learning to trust and lean on God through the changes?

Have you thought much about what it means that God is unchanging?

Have you felt the comfort of knowing that God is the same yesterday, today and always?

(This reflection was  influenced by AW Tozer’s Knowledge of the Holy)

Worship