Everything changes ... except Jesus

link Judy Brandon

Columnist

It is vacation time and most people have trips planned out of town to see new sights and experience new adventures.

When I was 8, our family vacationed in California and visited relatives. We were eager to see our cousins but really more excited about the new attraction in Los Angeles: Disneyland.

We struck out early one June morning from New Mexico in our 1956 blue Ford Fairlane en route to California.

I was eager to finally experience Disneyland. But something else fanned my zeal for California. I was sure I would see Roy Rogers and Dale Evans. They were my heroes. My naiveté kept my imagination running and my anticipation high.

After three days, we arrived in Los Angeles. On the third day, we spotted a new hamburger drive-in place that had been advertised. They boasted 29-cent hamburgers and “ready in 5 minutes.”

We all went up to the window to order and gave our order to the attendant and then we watched the flurry of activity. Before five minutes was up, we got our food. We sat down to eat on some outside benches with tables.

We were amazed at the steady procession of customers. Our family conversation centered on this new phenomenon in drive-ins. Daddy shook his head in amazement and asked my mother: “Do you think places like this will ever catch on?” The name of that place was McDonald’s, and yes it has caught on.

The world has changed. With the passing of time, circumstances, events and situations in life do change. Nothing stays the same. Families change. New babies are born, sons-in-law, daughters-in-law, nieces, nephews and cousins are added to the clan. Children grow up and parents grow older. A mother’s children are gone and to her it only seems like yesterday that she was finishing cupcakes on an early school morning to take to the class third-grade Christmas party.

Everything changes. The economy “shifts,” the stock market rises and falls, earthquakes alter the surface of the land and tsunamis devastate entire beaches and cities. Towns are transformed into different places over time; vacant lots in town are developed, old buildings are demolished, and churches are rebuilt on the distant edge of town to accommodate “the way the city is moving.”

Governments change. Civil wars, revolutions, and elections bring new rulers, dictators or presidents. Students are required to memorize the founding fathers of the country so those men will not be forgotten with the passing of time.

Life is fluctuating and life moves on and we advance with it. We have no choice and many times because we are in a constant state of change, nothing in life seems dependable. Change in this life is inevitable.

Yet, through all of life’s changes, I can always count on one area of my life to be consistent: Jesus.

He is the same whether society is changing or not, and no matter what circumstances I face.

The Bible declares the immutability of God. Malachi 3:6 reads “I the Lord do not change.”

The Psalmist wrote: “Of old You founded the earth, And the heavens are the work of Your hands. Even they will perish, but You endure; And all of them will wear out like a garment; Like clothing You will change them and they will be changed. But You are the same, And Your years will not come to an end.”

Further, the writer of Hebrews declares that “Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, and today and forever.” (Hebrews 13:8.)

The Christ we have today is the same Christ that fed the 5,000, calmed the sea, walked on the water, healed diseases, raised the dead and gave sight to the blind. Christ can sustain us through the swelling tides of life’s changes, no matter what season of our lives or condition of the world.

Judy Brandon writes about faith for the Clovis News Journal. Contact her at:

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