A Rock in the Sea of Change

By: Andrea Watkins

            Do you like change? Most people are not thrilled by the thought of change in their routine, their work, or their normal day. We go to the grocery and they have moved the location of the canned beans, so we wander the aisles mumbling that this trip to the store is taking too long. Construction on the highway forces a detour through an area we are unfamiliar with, and we feel nervous that we might end up lost. Our smart phone runs an update and the functions are changed, thus we struggle trying to figure out where the maps app has disappeared to.

            I teach American history at the university level and one thing I know a good deal about is change. As I lecture my students about the development of the United States, we spend much time discussing change – changes in government, change brought by war and conflict, changes created by new technologies, change in social and cultural attitudes, even changes in religion. The study of history is a study of change, its consequences, and how people deal with it over long periods of time. From my own research, I can tell you people in the past did not deal well with change and there are entire movements built on the idea of preventing change.

            As I was preparing to teach the Civil War this week, it occurred to me that one thing in this world has never changed – Jesus. As the writer of Hebrews stated, “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.” (Hebrews 13:8, NIV) How comforting to know that Christ in all his attributes, his love, his power, his glory, is the same as He was at the foundation of the world, when He walked on the earth with the disciples, when the first pilgrims arrived at Plymouth, when the Declaration of Independence was signed, when families fought against each other in the Civil War, when the Great Depression led to empty bellies and hard times, when the destruction of the atom bomb was introduced,  when the economic times were good in the 1980s/1990s, when the terrorists attacked on 9/11, and when you woke up this morning.

He is the one constant in our lives no matter what happens around us. When I feel my life spinning out of control because of broken relationships, a lost job, a rebellious child, sick family members, loneliness, and the sins of my own selfish nature, He is there to provide the strong rock that I can cling to in the sea of change. I reach out and He is there holding out His hand and ready to engulf me in the love that only He can provide.

This day give thanks for an unchanging Jesus. And when you are faced with change, both great and small, reach out to the one who is always the same.

Andrea S. Watkins is a single mom of one teenage daughter. She teaches American history, and enjoys serving her church family in the women’s and music ministries.