In a Season of Change

Our Home – Winter 2013

“Your word, YHVH, is eternal;
it stands firm in the heavens.
Your faithfulness continues through all generations;
you established the earth, and it endures.
Your laws endure to this day,
for all things serve you” (Psalm 119:89-91).

At the breakfast table, my husband has been reading one section each morning from Psalm 119. Yesterday morning, he read Lamed, or Psalm 119:89-96.

As he read about how YHVH God “established the earth, and it endures,” I couldn’t help but look out the windows of the sunroom where we were eating. The hill behind our home slopes up steeply, and it’s covered with trees.

And snow. Lots and lots of snow.

Yes, I know it’s April at your house. The calendar says it’s April at my house, too, but it sure doesn’t look like it. In fact, as I type, the skies are covered with thick, gray clouds, and soft snowflakes are fluttering down. A snow plow drove by a few minutes ago.

I’m not sure spring is ever coming this year. Maybe we’re stuck in an everlasting winter.

I’m just teasing. I know that spring must come, because God promised Noah that it always would.

“As long as the earth endures,
seedtime and harvest,
cold and heat,
summer and winter,
day and night
will never cease” (Genesis 8:22).

The seasons will always change.

The earth, on the other hand, will endure.

At least for a long, long time. We read in the prophets that someday, even the earth will be destroyed.

“But the day of YHVH will come like a thief. The heavens will disappear with a roar; the elements will be destroyed by fire, and the earth and everything done in it will be laid bare” (2 Peter 3:10).

Okay, so even the earth will someday change.

This entire winter has been a season of change for our family, as we’ve moved jobs, homes, states, and churches. It’s been a bit of a roller coaster.

Life is full of change. Here are some other things I thought of that change:

• Websites. My husband’s new occupation is being a website designer. He makes the graphics, the logos, and even the entire layout of websites, for small bloggers, non-profit organizations, and even large businesses. No matter who our clients have been, I’ve noticed one thing. People change their minds. One day they like orange. The next day they like blue. One day it’s the fashion to keep a website “above the fold,” so that visitors don’t have to scroll much; the next, it’s popular to view the site with touchscreen devices, scrolling with our fingers. Technology changes. Software changes. Just when he’s learned something, he learns he has to learn something new.
• Surroundings. Yes, we moved to a new house, but even if we hadn’t, my husband is famous for changing around the furniture every few months. The decorations change as we see new things at thrift stores and yard sales. The paint colors change. The appliances break, so we get newer ones. The towels wear out, so we change colors.
• Children. My youngest child has now been potty trained, so for the first time in 17 years, I didn’t buy a pack of diapers at Wal-mart this week. That just felt weird!
• Clothes. When we moved, I somehow misplaced a box containing all the shoes I own, except for a pair of boots and my slippers. Yes, all of them. Sigh. So I’ll need to be getting some new shoes. (Maybe this is why God is allowing it to snow so long this year. I can wear my boots in public without looking silly!)
• Health. A friend, a mother of 7 children, found out this week that she has breast cancer. A friend of my mother’s died last week. A friend at church announced that she is now on the list to receive a kidney transplant. My husband is starting to bald. (Just a little bit, Honey. No big deal…) 😉
• My Mood. One day I’m discouraged. The next day I’m laughing and singing.
• My Mind. One day I think we should use this phone company; the next day, I’m frustrated with them and want to use somebody else. One day I’m sure God’s will is for this. The next day I’m sure God’s will is for that.
• Standards of Right and Wrong. Clothing standards change. Music standards change. Hair standards change. Bible translations change. Even opinions of morality change. Don’t get me started….

So what doesn’t change?

Only God. His name is Yehovah, the meaning of which is difficult to explain in English. Probably even in Hebrew. It’s difficult to wrap my mind around in any language, but the best I can do is to say that His name means, “I am” in present tense, past tense, and future tense.

“Then Moses said to God, ‘Indeed, when I come to the children of Israel and say to them, “The God of your fathers has sent me to you,” and they say to me, “What is His name?” what shall I say to them?’ And God said to Moses, ‘I AM WHO I AM.‘ And He said, ‘Thus you shall say to the children of Israel, “I AM has sent me to you.”‘” (Exodus 3:13-14).

My children were reviewing their “being verbs” in grammar this week. Verbs have a “state of being,” which explains tenses, moods, and so much more.

God is. He was. He is being. He has. He does. He will. He must. He can.

He is unchanging.

Ahhhhhhhhhh…

“Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows” (James 1:17).

“God is not human, that he should lie,
not a human being, that he should change his mind.
Does he speak and then not act?
Does he promise and not fulfill?” (Numbers 23:19)

“He who is the Glory of Israel does not lie or change his mind; for he is not a human being, that he should change his mind” (1 Samuel 15:29).

“YHVH has sworn
and will not change his mind” (Psalm 110:4).

“I YHVH do not change” (Malachi 3:6).

Each sabbath, our family lights two candles on our table on Friday evening. The two candles represent creation (Exodus 20:8-11) and redemption (Deuteronomy 5:12-15), and they are the two things explicitly commanded for us to remember each week.

Every seven days I am to remember that God redeemed me with a “mighty hand and an outstretched arm” (Deuteronomy 5:15).

Every seven days I am to remember that God “made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them” (Exodus 20:11).

I need to do this every seven days, because otherwise my mind will change. I’ll forget. I’ll lose track. My mood will swing. And my faith will disappear.

But whether I choose to remember or not, my Father in heaven will not change. When the shadows of sabbath lift, He is still there. He doesn’t have moods. He doesn’t show favoritism.

He is just there.

He is inexpressible.

“Your word, YHVH, is eternal;
it stands firm in the heavens.
Your faithfulness continues through all generations;
you established the earth, and it endures.
Your laws endure to this day,
for all things serve you” (Psalm 119:89-91).

And He offers so much for me to take comfort in.