“Everything changes but God changes not” is a hymn I remember singing at Junior School. We seem to be heaping change on change at the moment at St Christopher’s and some of us find that easier than others. As we say a sad but grateful farewell to Paul & Sue, Megan & Chris, Colin & Anna, and eventually to Adrian and me; we also welcome with joy people like Roz, and Jayne & Neil, as well as people like James & Hope getting involved in music, and others exploring faith through baptism. But even good and nice change is change and can feel bewildering.
I don’t believe that God never changes his mind (see Abraham persuading God not to destroy Sodom in Genesis 18) but I do believe that his qualities (if that’s a good enough word) of constant love for us, attention to us, reliability, forgiveness, etc are unchangeable. Perhaps we often take those things for granted until other things are shaken in our lives and we’re going through change. So this would be a good time to grab hold of those promises of God, the reason we liken him to a rock.
We’re going to learn a new song during September that some of us sang at Scargill which has the chorus, “Your love never fails, never gives up, never gives up on me” – something to hold fast to as life shakes the false foundations we lean on other than Jesus. As Hebrews 13:8 reminds us: ‘Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.’
Yours in Christ,
Alison