“The Lord is the one who will go before you. He will be with you;
he will not leave you or abandon you. Do not be afraid or discouraged.”[1]
Mike and/or I have been making several trips to Durham, NC over the summer. It is such a very familiar trip to me because I have traveled it since I was a child. We were traveling to Durham for orthodontist/dentist appointments and shopping when I was growing up. That was the only city where I could walk into a store and find shoes to fit. Since Mike and I have been married, we have made the trip countless times, so the landscape is very familiar to us.
Have you ever traveled a road so repeatedly that you felt like you even knew some of those who lived near the road? I traveled the same route to work every day for 31 years. I noticed the houses along the way, how the yards were kept, when they painted their house, where they planted their garden each year, when they put an addition on the house, and then when there was no activity at that house. It seemed that I had almost become entwined in the lives of those whose homes I rode past daily. When something in the landscape changed, I noticed and wondered why.
Less than yen years ago, Mike and I began noticing that trees were being harvested from so many fields along this same route. Taking down towering trees can really change the landscape. When I used to turn near a particular crop of trees that was no longer there, I would nearly miss the turn. Even in the case of the opposite happening – when I returned to my high school several years ago, the last ½ mile was not the route I had remembered. The trees on the right side of the road were probably 30+ feet tall. When I attended school there, they were about my size, and there were fewer of them. It was unnerving at first because I didn’t recognize where I was.
As Mike and I traveled to and from Durham this day, God made me so very aware of the changing landscapes. Even with my peripheral vision, I noticed the changes in the landscape. I suppose these changes are a part of life.
These changes are not just limited to our environment or the outdoor landscape. They can and do become very apparent on the inside of our homes and hearts. When someone has rearranged the furniture in their house, you notice it right away. Sometimes it might even take a while to get used to where your favorite chair is now located! Remember how Sheldon on “The Big Bang Theory” would only sit at the end of the couch on “his cushion”, and he would know when something had changed about that cushion? That’s what I’m talking about.
Things change when someone we love passes. There is that empty chair at the table, the empty favorite chair in the family room, that favorite mug which was used for coffee or tea, the foods that they were the best at preparing, the phone call that is no longer received, the phone call you can no longer make, the traditions led by that family matriarch. It is tough. The landscape has changed. We can feel it. We can see it. We can fight it. We can get upset about it. Nevertheless, the landscape is what it is.
These landscapes can also change in positive ways. Where a home/yard has been neglected, it will become new again with new owners. Where trees have been cut down, new plans may fill those fields over time. New life will come from new unions of man and wife and as babies fill the landscape.
Change is inevitable in life with its positive and negative consequences. We have to accept every one of them. We may or may not like them, but we must accept them. “Heraclitus, a Greek philosopher, is quoted as saying ‘change is the only constant in life.’”[2]
Yes, change will always occur in our lives. We can be assured that our lives are always changing and will continue to do so. But I challenge the implication that change is the ONLY CONSTANT in life. I believe that GOD is the ONLY CONSTANT in the lives of those who accept Him as Lord and Savior. And He is available to everyone to become the CONSTANT in their lives. God is ALWAYS with us and will NEVER leave us nor forsake us. (Hebrews 13:5)
A segment of the devotion for October 8 in Jesus Calling is as follows:
I love you with an everlasting love. The human mind cannot comprehend My
constancy…This awareness of My Presence strengthens you, as you receive and
respond to My Love…Let My Love flow into you continually. Your need for me
is as CONSTANT as the outflow of My love to you.[3] (author emphasis)
As you think about how your life has and is changing, think about Who or What is the CONSTANT in your life. Do you want the unpredictable “change” to be the ONLY constant in your life or the predictable, reliable, trustworthy Lamb of God?
Thanks for stopping by,
Rachel
[1] Deuteronomy 31:8, Christian Standard Bible [2] Trudy Foster, “Change is the Only Constant in Life”, 9 April 2020, https://www.fmlm.ac.uk/news-opinion/change-is-the-only-constant#:~:text=Heraclitus%2C%20a%20Greek%20philosopher%2C%20is,recall%20what%20%27normal%27%20was. [3] Sarah Young, Jesus Calling, (Tennessee, Thomas Nelson, 2011), 295
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