I am the LORD, I change not; therefore, ye sons of Jacob are not consumed. Malachi 3:6 KJV
AS I looked through my breakfast table window this morning, my eyes rested on the old Townsend Miller’s House which sits on our property. I thought “If only I could have a time-lapse video of the changes that have taken place since its first room was built in the 1830s.” Perhaps I would see the change from a Cherokee cabin reinforced with mud and wood to a two-story log cabin, then an add-on of two more stories soon after the Civil War. I would see an “L” added onto the back where the kitchen was. In the early 1900s, I would see the “L” torn away, a side room added. and a kitchen added across the back side. I would see the worries< that took place in the people’s lives through the Native American removal, the Civil War, World Wars I and II, Korea, and Vietnam. I would see weddings, baptisms, and celebrations. Laughter and tears … through lifetimes, where change was the keyword.
Changes often brings turmoil, upset, and worry, as have the recent ones in North Georgia and around the world. Yet uncontrollable changes in our lives often give way to the positive: new friendships, richer lives, new paths, or revelation of greater truths. For example, in the Bible, When Philemon’s slave Onesimus, ran away, was converted by Paul, and voluntarily returned to Colossee, Philemon learned how to forgive, see Onesimus as an equal brother, and to be a friend. When God called and Abraham left Ur of the Chaldees, Abraham found his destiny. His offspring would be as numberless as the stars. When David left the sheep herd and killed Goliath, he was set on a path to kingship. When the disciples were tossed about in a boat on the Sea of Galilee, they discovered the master of the storm and their faith in Him grew. After King Uzziah died, Isaiah saw the Lord “high and lifted up and His train filling the temple.”
God told Malachi, “I am the Lord. I change not.” Charles Spurgeon expounded, “There are no furrows on his eternal brow. No age hath palsied him; no years have marked him with the mementoes of their flight; he sees ages pass, but with him it is ever now. He is the great I AM — the Great Unchangeable.” Therefore, His essence does not change. His compassion, then is not for a specific time but endures forever, even today for you and me.
What opportunities exist amid change! What possibilities! Rather than be stunned and mummified, let us be visionary, not afraid, but embracing the future as prisoners of hope, always searching for life’s treasures.
