Changeless

I suppose that I have been scientifically incorrect all day, as I have been saying “Happy First Day of Fall,” first to Marcia as she helped me get breakfast and then in written email form to my friends. I guess I should have double checked the calendar on the wall, because according to my Google search, I am a few days ahead of schedule. Not in my mind to be a big deal, as I am readily excited for the season change, however, according to the National Weather Service  website, the official time the Autumnal Equinox begins is Tuesday, September 22nd at 10:29 EST. (http://www.crh.noaa.gov/lbf/?n=firstdayfall).

I don’t believe that my physical change are purposefully targeted to happen around the weather. Yet, if that is truly what God intends–maybe to teach me a new lesson of faith–then it sure seems to happen in this way more often. These past few weeks have brought many changes, not just for myself, but my family too. It is situations I cannot do on my own; it is situations my family cannot do on their own.

Because I have to sit almost all day at the present times, I get to think, read and do a lot of looking out the window when no one is around. I first got home from eye surgery, I was in complete sleep zone, but now that I am awake and more alert, I have noticed the leaves changing colors. Starting small at first, now they are clumping together to more brighter show. I have been thinking of this in terms of how much love, prayers and support are shown to me and my family during these times. The love of God starts spreading, like new colors on the leaves making a beautiful picture to behold.

The oxymoron: change is constant. Seasons are short. Even as Autumn begins, it will end. In an Andy Griffith episode titled, “The Loaded Goat,” the town of Mayberry finds themselves in a bit of change for a day as well. As construction workers blast near the highway for an underpass, a local farmer brings his goat, Jimmy, to town. Understand, Jimmy “has a very healthy appetite.” After chewing his rope and freeing himself from the bench, Jimmy wanders around town and gets himself into predicaments with the town drunk, Otis, and eats some of the dynamite found stored in a shed for the bypass work.

Hilarious adventures follow, as Barney and Andy determine the best way to resolve getting the goat safely out of town. Andy sends for the construction crew’s blast engineer for advice. Never having seen anything such as this in his prior twenty years on the job, his knowledge of the situation was simple: “There is only one thing you can be sure of, and that there is nothing you can be sure of.”

I am sure Moses felt this way too, as God spoke to him through the burning bush. Moses, being called to enter a new season of change, wanted to know what to tell the people when they asked for His name,

Then Moses said to God, “If I come to the people of Israel and say to them, ‘The God of your fathers has sent me to you,’ and they ask me, ‘What is his name?’ what shall I say to them?”

God said to Moses, “I AM who I AM.” And he said, “Say this to the people of Israel, ‘I AM has sent me to you.’”

Exodus 3:13-14

Changeless. And as I often sit gazing out the same window, the truth that God remains, never changing, shows me how small and fragile my faith can become when I trust myself in an ever-changing world. Even while sitting, I can fully stand on the promises of God.