I remember as a little girl being so excited to get to weigh myself at the Publix Grocery store when my mom would take us. We just loved to see how we were growing. I could tell you that now when I walked by that scale at Publix, I do not step on it any longer as an adult. My perspective and point of view has been changed. 

As a child in elementary school, Valentine’s Day was such a treat. You would make your little Valentine mailbox or envelope and then everyone put all the Valentine’s with the candy and the happy thoughts in your box. It was such a great day and one I look forward to every year in elementary school. As a single lady currently, I don’t really have much use for Valentine’s Day. It passes by unobserved, no longer the exciting event that I once looked forward to. I can’t even enjoy the candy because of the scale. You see things have changed in my life and in my body as I have grown. That is the way of our human existence.

We cannot think that everything we just love in that moment we’ll continue to be something that we look forward to in the future. Scientists have proven that your taste buds change every seven years and it’s not just our taste buds that change, it’s our preference for activities and events.

All of these things though, these everyday items I look forward to or no longer look forward to are all temporary. They’re not eternal. Yes, there are oh so many temporary things that change over the course of our life. Some of it is due to aging. Some of it is caused by our experiences. Also, some of the changes are because of exposure. Finally, some of the changes are just because our taste buds change (our preferences). That’s the beauty of human life. This can make you think that nothing will stay the same.  This consistent change is an indicator that the world is changing around you and you are growing and changing in it.  However, it is not an indicator that everything is changing. I propose that there is one thing that doesn’t change, One being really. That’s God.

In the past when I had read that God is the same yesterday, today, and forever it didn’t occur to me why this was such a powerful thing. Why should this comfort us that God is unchanging? Why does it matter in the life of a believer?  I contemplate God’s steadiness in our ever moving and changing reality, and I had a powerful realization.  I see the comfort that can be found in knowing God is steady. 

We need a rock to stand on that we know is not going to move. We need a target to aim for that isn’t shifting as we’re trying to focus our gaze and take our shot. Because we serve an unchanging God, we can know exactly what we stand for, exactly who we believe in, and exactly whose heart we’re aiming for. Not only can we know exactly who God is, but we can also know what God wants. Unlike us as humans who might want the Valentine’s Day when we’re young but then when we’re older not really care. Or love the scale until it becomes our enemy. What God wants doesn’t change. So, if you’ve read in his word about who God is and what he desires you can trust in his word. That’s not something we can trust anywhere else in our reality and in our world. Everything else around us except God shifts and moves and adapts and adjusts, but not God. He is who he is. Remember when he declared to Moses I am. That’s it, I am. And as He is, He will always be. So powerful when you think about it.

Further still, God is unchanging in our pursuit of him, and we can actually move closer to him. He’s not moving, and he shows us how to move closer to him. Now think of this, if you’re aiming at a moving target and it’s getting further and further away. Or perhaps it’s going here and there making the distance between you and the target constantly changing.  You’re never really going to be able to set your aim, because how can you hit a moving target. Not easily.  How frustrating? Have you ever felt like that before? Like you were chasing a moving target.  I have in life and relationships.  

Another way to look at it is that it would be like running a marathon, but the course keeps changing after you have already started. It wouldn’t make sense and that’s why marathons like that don’t exist. A runner has to know where they’re heading in order to go in the right direction. An archer taking aim has to know what the target is. So, a benefit of our God’s unchanging nature is that as we can pursue him with confidence. He’s not moving further away from us.  He is not saying “I’m here, Nope, now I’m here, nope now I’m over there”. This isn’t some weird hide and seek game that you’re never going to win. Instead, he’s there unchanging and we know what direction to move in to get closer to his heart. We know the charted race and the finish line.  We can live and move confidently because we know where the end is going to be. 

Our God, unlike our preferences, our situations, the people in our life, or where we are, never changes. Our God is a rock! He is our steady.  He is a target we can aim for with certainty.  In our ever-changing world this should bring us peace and hope.   Things change, God won’t. Stand firm on God, our rock today!