Never Changing Never Ending
Today is the official start of the 2022 Atlantic Basin Hurricane Season. NOAA puts the probability that this will be an above normal season at 65%. They are predicting 14-21 named storms, meaning a storm with at least winds speeds of 39 mph. Of those storms, six to ten will become an actual hurricane (winds speeds in excess of 74 mph). And of the hurricanes, about half of them will be considered major; Category 3, 4, or 5, wind speeds above 111 mph. The first five tropical storm names will be Alex, Bonnie, Colin, Danielle, Earl.
As weather conditions change, sometimes hour by hour, tropical storms experience ever-changing and fluctuating wind speeds, direction, and intensity. Without much notice, a Cat 1 storm can quickly turn into a major Cat 3 storm. Or vice versa. Due to the hurricane’s many eyewall replacement cycles, directional changes constantly occur, making it challenging to predict the storm’s actual landfall location. Life is often that way; we can see ourselves bouncing all over the place, with our emotions often hard to predict.
You wake up in the morning with anticipation looking forward to a new customer signing a big contract with your company, only to quickly become annoyed as you jump in the shower and find that someone has used all your body wash. After breakfast and morning devotions, you head off the work in the car, but quickly experience frustration; your insulated mug lid was not put on tight and now coffee is all over your shirt. Once you get to work, your earlier anticipation turns to sadness when you open our e-mail and find that the customer you had planned to meet with signed instead with one of your competitors. After work as you and your spouse meet old friends for dinner, you feel happy, but also find yourself distracted, thinking about that how to convince that customer to change their mind and sign with your company.
In just the course of a few short hours you experienced a roller coaster of emotions and feelings. Throw in the state of being hungry, thirsty, tired, hot or cold, etc., and you had a full day bouncing all over the place.
While we, like the tropical storms, often change from minute to the next, God never changes. God, in His three persons (Father, Son, Holy Spirit) is the same yesterday, today, and forever. You’ve probably heard the saying that the only constant is change. While that is true of us and all the things around us, the opposite is true of God – He is consistent; always good, always loving, always faithful, always all-powerful. In Malachi 3:6, the Lord says this of himself, “I the LORD do not change.” Elsewhere, we find this, “Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows” (James 1:17). And the writer of Hebrews says this about Jesus, “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever” (13:8).
So, no matter how uncertain your life is, or how changing the world seems to be, you can always trust in God’s never-changing and never-ending love and faithfulness.
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