3 Laws of Change

Her wrinkled hand clasped my arm for stability as we took a slight step down.

“I need help ever since it happened,” she said apologetically.

“Since what?” I asked, unsure if she had an injury I hadn’t heard about and ought to be aware of.

Playfully, she shot back, “since I got old!”

The sweet woman had a sense of humor about something everyone experiences- aging. It’s the process of staying the same for so long….that you change.

Her muscles were weak from the regular use of them over many decades. Her bones had become brittle not by disease, but because they’d supported her narrow frame since she was born.

Like ruts in a regularly-traveled road, faded-colors on untouched papers, or the thinning end of a well-loved wooden spoon, some changes occur because nothing has changed.

(1) Change is inevitable in this world.

Young, healthy strides outpaced mine as I tried to command my lungs to work as effortlessly as they once did. I was out of shape, and she was too young to know what that felt like.

As we walked together regularly, our topics of conversation grew. But they had a rhythm. We caught up on staples of life, learned the silent cues friends do, and she shared her hopes, her fears, her worries about this and that. I prayed for her, told her about Jesus whenever the opportunity arose, and kept the precious letter she gave me when she graduated and moved on.

I was sad to see her go- but that’s what I’d prayed for lovingly, with confidence that God was going to keep growing her wonderfully.

(2) Change is what we hope for.

Boxes of presents unloaded, sorted, and packed. The place she’d called home was well on its way to moving to the place they would call home together soon. She looked sad, overwhelmed, and confused.

I’ve seen the face before. I’ve worn it, too.

As an optimist, I love to think how every end is a new beginning. But it’s also true that every new beginning is an end.

For single friends rejoicing in their long-prayed-for, blessing of an upcoming marriage, I’ve seen bewilderment at the grief that comes too. Grief for no more roommates, for the growing lull in stomach-fluttering conversations about whether he’s “the one,” for giving away ordinary things like trusty old dishes from the clearance section for a first apartment…because a bridal shower came with 3 bright, shiny sets now picked out together.

(3) Change gives us new experiences and perspectives.

These laws of change have a way of filling our hearts up and breaking them. Change is what we want and what we hate. It’s a blessing and a curse.

And in everything, change can point us to Christ.

Has it ever struck you that Jesus who “is the same yesterday and today and forever,” had a say in making “a season for everything?”

Of all change tells us about Jesus, two things stand out to me when I reflect on the laws of change:

• Jesus embodies ALL the best of ALL the different things that change represents.
• Change and hope are deeply intertwined for the believer because God needs neither, but offers both.

Jesus knows what it is to persevere and to wait. To look forward to the future and to know what will happen. To love and not be loved, and be loved entirely.

The changes we experience give us a glimpse into the fullness of our supreme Savior.

There isn’t anything we can imagine that God does not know and understand already. All of our change, all of the hope we put in our Savior, is known by the Author and Finisher and Perfector.

We don’t have any clue what “complete” means today. But we know with expectant hope that change is a tool, and a gift, and a teacher. Not a master.

Like everything else, change is subject to Christ, who is All in All. So we can lean into it, knowing whose hand holds what we cannot.

A true classic, Truth Unchanged, Unchanging by Martyn Lloyd-Jones is one of my favorite books. The supremacy and stability of Christ is made so clear through its message. Find your copy here.

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