Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever. Hebrews 13:8
Dear Jesus, I really don’t like change. I like newness, excitement and adventure, but when it’s all said and done, I love to come home to the normal and the predictable. My nostalgia for the known runs so deep—maybe teetering towards obsession at times. Grant me grace to accept change, because there’s so much change going on everywhere I look.
Another freshly planted “For Sale” sign confirms old friends are moving away. A favorite tree, whose leaves gave the relief of shade and a vibrant tapestry of fall color, is taken down by a storm. The restaurant which served great food, rich conversation and the ambiance of perpetual welcome had to close. I don’t like it, Jesus. Change is disruptive. Precious things don’t become vintage things overnight.
How thankful we are, there’s One part of our lives that will never change, and that’s you, Jesus. You are the same yesterday, today and forever. That certainly doesn’t make you predictable and far less so, manageable. But it does mean that we can trust you without any reservations, whatsoever. In fact, it’s only in knowing you, Jesus, that change is put into perspective.
The most fundamental change we need is to become like you, Jesus, and that process is the most disruptive and painful change we will ever go through. Yet with the knowledge that one Day we’ll be as lovely and as loving as you, we gladly surrender to the work of the gospel in our lives. We learn to pray, “Lord, may it hurt so good, if growth will reveal your grace and glory in my life.”
Likewise, Jesus, the better we know you the more we come alive to your promise to make all things new. Change has no sovereignty. Only you are Lord. Nothing is random in this world. Nothing catches you off guard. The scary becomes the sacred when we’re wearing the lens of the gospel.
Jesus, help each of us see and accept changes as a part of a far better story than we could ever hope to write. You are making all things new, right now—right before our very eyes, if we have eyes to see and a heart to accept. Because of your life, death and resurrection, we’re heading towards a place, family and eternity in which it will all make sense and everything will be the way it’s supposed to be. Hasten that magnificent Day!
Until then, Jesus, may we love you with abandon, serve you without question and order our lives after your transforming purposes. So very Amen, we pray in your merciful and matchless name.
