Change is one of the laws of life. Birth, growth, decay, and death are all part of a flow that never ends. No one can escape that fact of change, though some have tried.
Pyramids, that are still the wonder of the world, have been built in order to insure lasting fame. These people have sought to write their names on the page of human history with indelible ink. Yet the pyramids have crumbled and the writing has grown dim with age. We cannot escape the winds of change that blow across the human scene.
One ancient thinker was so impressed with the ceaseless flux and flow of existence that he declared change to be the essence of all things. The only thing that never changes, he said, is the unchanging law of change. Life is like the restless waters of a river: you cannot step into the same river twice for the water into which you stepped the first time has gone on to the seas, and even you are changed, for it is not the same to step into the river the second time as it was to step into it the first time! Still we long for permanence. We instinctively seek the permanent in the passing. We cannot escape the conviction that what is real must in some way be lasting.
When we look at the passing and the permanent, we begin to see something very important, everything does not change. If it did, we would not recognize change itself. The only way we know the river is flowing is because there are trees and rocks along the bank that do not flow. We see change only by comparing it with the changeless.
So we have not only laws of change; we also find changing laws. Nothing has contributed more to changes in the circumstances of human life than the growth of modern science. Yet science has gained its understanding and control of change by the discovery of what is really unchanging.
If and when men go to Mars, a new thing will have happened; but that new thing will happen, if it does, because scientists have discovered principles and laws which are as old as the universe itself laws of energy and inertia which are not created by man but are found at the heart of reality. All of this has great meaning for the kind of men or women we are. Just as in the world about us the scientist gains his understanding and control of change by the discovery of the abiding and the permanent, so we need to meet the changes of life from a point of reference that is fixed and eternal.
Where is the permanent in human life? It is certainly not in external conditions. It is not in political institutions. It is not in the works of men’s hands. It is not in the customs of society. It is in the reality of a divine Person, “O Thou who changest not, abide with me!”
The apostle triumphantly points to “Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and to day, and for ever” (Hebrews 13:8). All that will hold for time and eternity is an anchor in the Rock of Ages.
God will not change; the restless years may bring
Sunlight and shade -the glories of the spring
And silent gloom of winter hours –
Joy mixed with grief-sharp thorns with fragrant flowers.
Earth’s lights may shine awhile, and then grow dim,
But God is true; there is no change in Him.
-Edith Hickman Dival
Nor does the Gospel of Christ change. It is, as it was, the great good news of redemption and meaning and purpose in human life. The greatest problems we have are not the problems of poverty or race or disease or war. The greatest problems we have come because we are “aliens by birth and sinners by choice,” the moral twist of the human spirit. The beginning of the solution to all human problems is offered in the everlasting Gospel, which is the power of God unto salvation.
The good news for people living in a changing world is the old news of the unchanging grace of God. Whatever your past and whatever the circumstances of your present, you can find forgiveness and peace in repentance, prayer, and faith.
Always at hand in the changing ways of life is the cleansing of the heart that goes “deeper that the stain has gone.” We cannot stop with pardon for the past, we must have power for the present and prospect for the future. God’s call to every Christian is not a call to an uncleaned way or will, but a call to holiness. “But as he which hath called you is holy, so be ye holy in all manner of conversation” (1 Peter 1: 15).
John saw it clearly, and said it well, “And the world passeth away, and the lust thereof: but he that doeth the will of God abideth for ever” (1 John 2: 17). Change is real, and we must live with it; but beyond and above the passing is the permanent, and we must live in it. Only in God himself does the heart find its home.