Change

Henry David Thoreau said, “Things do not change, we change.” As I sit beside the pounding, surf at Cannon Beach, Oregon I see truth in these words. Things like the ocean do not change. The ocean on this portion of the Oregon coast has been roiling, churning, and spraying the land mass for hundreds and thousands of years. The ocean is the biggest influence on the weather of this whole coastal region. If all of mankind ceased to exist tomorrow the roar of the sea on this piece of beach would not change one note. The ocean is a good place to come to consider the constancy of things.

There are other things that do not change. The sun rises each morning and sets each evening; at least in these latitudes. Seasons come and go. The moon continues her orbit around the earth. Tremendous tidal forces shift the mass of the ocean in her boundaries like wine in a tipsy drinker’s glass. These high and low tides may appear random but in the big picture they are changeless and can be predicted many years into the future.

God does not change. He is the same, yesterday, today, and forever. We change. We humans are constantly changing; sometimes because we want to change and sometimes against our will. And God, in His constant ability to come down to our level, continues to meet us where we are. The Holy, Creator, God always manages to stoop down and find His broken, weak, children wherever their journey has taken them. He meets us at our change-point.