Change

 

Change:

Autumn is here.  The leaves are starting to change.  The weather is turning cooler; the days shorter.  I love living in Ohio where we get to experience the change of the seasons.  At my acres, the giant red maple starts the color parade.  The poison ivy changes to its dark red early on as well.  Though an irritant, it is beautiful and provides a berry feast for my feathered friends.  Autumn’s palate is marvelous.  A few flowers wait until this time of year to bloom as well—asters, fall crocus, monkshood.  Some iris will take a second turn at blooming.  Change.

People change, too.  Mark changed and became a trusted helper of the Apostle Paul.  Demas changed and deserted Paul for the lures of an empty, temporary world.  People we have known and loved—still love—have changed as well.  I am always amazed at the change that takes place in the students I teach.  Some are surprising.  That student who I thought would never become a faithful disciple changes into a diligent, fearless follower of Christ.  Sadly, some who I was sure would follow Him choose not to do so.  We teachers, too, have our Mark and Demas.  Change.

Obviously, circumstances change.  Anyone who has lived very long has a string of, “Oops, didn’t see that coming.”  And sometimes they change in a split second, and we wish we had seen it coming.  There were people we needed to remind of our love.  Things that needed to be done that now can never be done.  The nations we live in change.  As a majority turns away from worship of the Creator and suppresses His morality replacing it with their own whims, nations decline and chaos of every kind becomes the rule of the day.  And then, tomorrow, there is a new rule of the day.  Change.

Change can be beautiful, frustrating, encouraging, confusing—but you can count on change occurring. 

Thankfully, there is One who never changes.  Yesterday, today, and forever He remains the same.  His love for us is loyal, relentless, and eternally inescapable.  Every care we cast on Him, He embraces as His own—as another chance for Him to demonstrate how much He cares.  In times of trouble, His unwavering faithfulness is our Shield and our Strong Tower, our Rock.  He never turns away the repentant sinner no matter the depth of his or her sin.  His grace is greater than our sins.  His willing testimony echoes through all of eternity, “I Am the Lord, I change not.”  A beautiful, encouraging, empowering changelessness.  Surrounded by a world, people, nations that are always changing, may we rest and rejoice in our immutable God.  “Yesterday, today, forever, Jesus is the same.  All may change but Jesus never.  Glory to His Name!”