Wednesday, December 31, 2025 – New Years Eve

“For Jesus doesn’t change—yesterday, today, tomorrow, he’s always totally himself.” (Hebrews 138, The Message Bible)

                What is the old expression? “Change is the only constant in life.” Amazingly, perhaps, that was written by a Greek philosopher, Heraclitus, over 2500 years ago. I am not sure what changes he may have been referring to, but I do know that in our modern day and age changes are rapidly occurring all the time. It is hard to keep up with the rapid evolution of technology, for example. I am lucky if I get my cell phone to work. Anything to do with AI just boggles my mind.

                Yesterday, I felt like Rip Van Winkle coming out of a deep sleep after twenty years. We took two of our grandchildren to see Zootopia at the movie theatre. It has been a very, very long time since Susan and I have gone to a movie. The changes to our experience blew our minds.  Katie had pre-purchased our tickets and simply showed the transaction on her phone for us to get in. (We paid her back later by more conventional means because this was to be our treat.) No longer does one have to line up to get your popcorn, snacks and drinks at the counter; everything is self serve. The drink machines have endless choices. One can  even get beer, wine and cider. (I had an orange soda,) You only go to the checkout to pay. We even added as much or as little butter flavour to our popcorn ourselves.  Our seats weren’t the narrow, uncomfortable, old theatre seats we remembered.  These were plush arm chairs. Lots of room. They even reclined.  Gadzooks! (I’ve be wanting to use that word lately; this seemed like a good moment.)

                As we look back on the year, I suspect that all of us can point to how things are changing in our personal lives and well as in the world. I used to love change. Susan has accused me, in the past, of fomenting change especially when things were going well or peaceably in our churches. I didn’t like complacency. I didn’t like stagnation. I didn’t like it if we were not growing, striving for better, grasping for new opportunities.  But now, as I grow older, give me peace and quiet. Give me constancy and predictability. Give me familiar and normalcy.  I want my old blue recliner back, the one we threw out when we moved. Then, world, leave me alone!

                But it doesn’t work that way. This past year has seen big changes in our lives. Moving to Whitby was the biggest and hardest but there have been other changes, maybe not as big but change just the same. Several have been good changes, e.g. finding a family doctor again after two years without one. On the other hand, health issues have reared their ugly head, so we needed that doctor. Yet we have survived and even thrived for the most part. But change is indeed a constant for us all.

                Who knows what next year will bring? More change, I’m sure. But before we moan and groan and complain, there is something that never changes no matter what.  That is the permanency of God’s Love for us as seen in Jesus Christ. I am not a big proponent of some of the stuffy theology that goes with the idea of God’s immutability, God’s changelessness. It seems a bit too rigid, inflexible and cold on the surface. I say that because God does  indeed change, in the sense that just when we fear he may be giving up on us, or forgetting us or punishing us, God changes his mind and sticks to his loving plan of grace, mercy and forgiveness.  God is changeless only in the sense that God doesn’t ever let us go. God doesn’t play games with us. God is not fickle or mercurial. Rather God is dependable, trustworthy, and best of all, loving. Those traits never change. “The Lord is my rock, my fortress, and my savior; my God is my rock, in whom I find protection. He is my shield, the power that saves me, and my place of safety.” (Psalm 18:2, NLT)

                Our text leads us to the same trustworthy nature of Jesus Christ, the incarnation of God. The person whom we see in the Gospels, compassionate, kind, serving, gracious, healing, just, a man for everyone, no matter whatever circumstances people are in, carries these same traits with him into his Lordship for us today and we can be sure for tomorrow. He came because of us; he lived and died for us; he will lead us into a better tomorrow. “I am the light of the world. If you follow me, you won’t have to walk in darkness, because you will have the light that leads to life.”  (John 8:12) As he did yesterday, that Light shines today and will shine tomorrow.

                I can guarantee that there will be changes in 2026. But I also can assure all of us that we are embraced and will continue to be embraced by the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit. Love of God, this day and forevermore.

                A blessed New Year to you all!

Dale