SOME THINGS NEVER CHANGE!
I am sometimes amazed by the quick passage of time and the changes of life. Just this year in our home alone, we have experienced several key changes. Our son has moved to Cincinnati to start his career; one of our parents has died; another parent has moved from their home in Evansville to live at Cedar Court due to changing health concerns; our youngest child has graduated from high school and will be leaving to attend college (which means an empty nest!); and all kinds of much smaller changes.
Time marches on and changes in life happen whether we are prepared or not, like it or not, want it or not, or appreciate them or not. Change – both good and not so good – happen throughout our lives. Change really is a part of life as is the passage of time. In all honesty, I am not all that wild about change. Sometimes I get so comfortable in life and with the way things are or are going, that I don't want anything or anyone to change. That change happens anyway!
Thomas Obadiah Chisholm was born in a log cabin in Franklin, Kentucky. At the age of 16, without benefit of an advanced education, he began teaching school. He would later go on to become a Methodist pastor. Shortly before his death in 1960, Thomas Chisholm wrote:
"My income has never been large at any time due to impaired health in the earlier years which is followed me until now. But I must not fail to record here the unfailing faithfulness of a covenant keeping God and that He has given me many wonderful displays of His providing care which it filled me with astonishing gratefulness."
One of the passages of Scripture that was especially meaningful for him during many changing times in his life due to health issues with from the third chapter of Lamentations (I know, who would have thought that!). Here's what it reads: "His compassions fail not. They are new every morning. Great is Your faithfulness." (verses 22-23).
Thomas Chisholm would write more than 1200 sacred poems and hymns in his long and changing life. For me, none is more meaningful than one of my favorites which is "Great Is Thy Faithfulness."
"Great is Thy faithfulness, O God my Father! There is no shadow of turning with Thee; Thou changest; Thy compassions, they fail not; As Thou hast been Thou forever wilt be.
"Summer and winter, and spring time and harvest; Sun, moon and stars in their courses above, join with all major in manifold witness, to Thy great faithfulness, mercy and love.
"Pardon for sin and a piece that endureth; Thine own dear presence to cheer and to guide. Strength for today and bright hope for tomorrow – blessings all mine, with ten thousand beside."
And then that great chorus: "Great is Thy faithfulness! Great is Thy faithfulness! Morning by morning new mercies I see; all I have needed Thy hand hath provided – Great is Thy faithfulness, Lord, unto me."
And in the midst of all the changes in my life and yours, this is a great passage of Scripture and a great hymn to hold dear in our hearts. In the midst of all the changes of my life, I am indeed thankful for the unchanging grace and love of God.
Blessings in Christ,
Jeff