Acadia Mountains, viewed from Hancock Pont
Spring is finally here! Nature’s consistency is wonderful! Every year we wobble our way around the sun. Seasons successively morph into each other but not by precise calendar dates. Dawn comes, and night falls but at different hours. Years come and go, but leap years happen, and the number of days in a year varies. The mountains remain on the horizon, but erosion gradually takes its toll. Tides flow to and fro on a shifting schedule. And lupine return every spring in assorted arrangements. So, within this constancy there are variations even if ever so slight and unnoticed. Scientists are discovering that predictable physical laws vary slightly in the way they function even though cosmic order persists. (That topic is way beyond my paygrade and is for those who understand quantum physics!)
Just as the world and the universe alter over time, so do our lives. We are physically fragile, our minds too eaily influenced, our emotions vulnerable, and unfortunately our wills are prone to the unholiness of selfishness, lousy attitudes, and bad behaviors. In contrast, Scripture reveals that God is eternally immutable and good.
God assured the Israelites of the pure balance of His love and justice even during their suffering for the consequences of their sinful idolatry, : “For I the Lord do not change…” (Malachi 3:6). James presents that same thought when he asserted that every good gift comes from God “with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change” (James 1:17). And when testifying of God’s divine perfection as revealed in Christ, the author of Hebrews proclaimed, ” Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever” ( Hebrews 13:8)
God deals with humanity with eternally perfect grace, mercy, love, faithfulness, morality, promises, authority, power, and justice. His omniscient mind and His holy, just, and good character are the basis for the Christian hope and beliefs which are regularly challenged by trials, diversions, doubts, and unsustainable fleshly pleasures foister by faulty and sometimes evil powers that run this broken world. However, one of His grand principles is that He “ is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance” (2 Peter 3:9)
That divine love is why Jesus came to us. Such love is the most powerful, transformative force in our universe and the most compelling means for personal and societal change for good. Jesus came not to condemn or remove us, but to seek and rescue us, to stabilize us, to bring forgiveness, reconciliation, and divine power enabling us to overcome evil, to grow us into reflections of God’s character, and to show us how to live as we were meant to live—trusting and loving God and caring about and for one another.
We know our lives are in flux. So, we adjust to life situations, cultural changes, and aging challenges, but the truth of an old hymn resounds in the hearts of people of faith:
Earthly friends may prove untrue,
Doubts and fears assail;
One still loves and cares for you,
One who will not fail.
Tho’ the sky be dark and drear,
Fierce and strong the gale;
Just remember He is near,
And He will not fail.
In life’s dark and bitter hour
Love will still prevail;
Trust His everlasting pow’r
Jesus will not fail.
Refrain:
Jesus never fails,
Jesus never fails;
Heav’n and earth may pass away,
But Jesus never fails.
That songs is full of complete confidence in Jesus, who promised to hold those of faith eternally in the palm of his hand. Thankfully, he is totally reliable and never fails (John 10:28).
Sweet Words from Maine 