“Though the mountains be shaken and the hills be removed, yet my unfailing love for you will not be shaken nor my covenant of peace be removed, says the Lord, who has compassion on you.” Isaiah 54:10
“Time changes everything.” “There’s nothing new under the sun.” Well, which is it? Both, it seems! The first statement is that of the individual looking back over his own recent past–experiencing the changes that come in life. The second statement is that of the historian, reminding us that these changes have been going on in human history for thousands of years. Both of these statements can be reconciled in this one: “The only thing constant is change”.
It sure seems that way, doesn’t it? Just think of the changes in our world over the last decade. The last century. The last millennium. Staggering changes. Almost unimaginable. We see a microcosm of this in our own congregation. Babies were born. Brothers and sisters in Christ that we have known for years are no longer with us for they have gone to be with Jesus. We’ve seen the children of the congregation grow up. Babies that crawled, now walk. Our confirmands join us at the Lord’s table. For some, high school ended and college began. For others, college ended and marriages began. We have several new members. Other members have moved on to different congregations. We are not the same now as we were at the beginning of 2009.
Is time really just a great river that brings constant changes and eventually sweeps everything away into insignificance? Are our lives essentially meaningless? Just specks in a great space/time continuum, and even less than that as the years flow by?
No! Jesus Christ, the second person of the Trinity, the Divine Logos through whom and by whom all things were created (including time) and live and move and have their being, became incarnate by the Holy Spirit of the virgin Mary and was made man. Jesus Christ, through his perfect life, bloody death, and glorious resurrection reached back in time and redeemed our past and reached forward in time and secured our eternal life. It is only in Jesus Christ, that our “now” has any meaning at all.
Amid the uncertainties of the future, God’s love in Jesus Christ is our constant. It will never change or grow dim. God won’t change his mind about us. The peace that we have with God through the blood of Jesus Christ will sustain us despite the changes that come with life in this world. Come what may, God loves us. That is all that really, ultimately matters.
May you and yours know and experience in full measure the love of God in Christ Jesus in the year to come
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