Our Scripture for today is Psalm 102:25-27.
Of old you laid the foundation of the earth, and the heavens are the work of your hands. They will perish, but you will remain; they will all wear out like a garment. You will change them like a robe, and they will pass away, but you are the same, and your years have no end.
These are encouraging words. They tell us about the nature of God. God does not change.
The God who met with Moses at the burning bush, knows us.
The One who led Israel in the wilderness with a pillar of fire by night, leads us with his light.
The One who sent the angel to lead Peter by the hand out of a midnight prison, still leads us.
He has not changed.
In this crazy world of change, it is wonderful to have something that stays the same. It is even more wonderful to know that something is God.
The world has changed a lot in the last 100 years. 100 years ago, the life expectancy for men was 47 years. There were only 8.000 cars in America and 114 miles of paved roads. If you were lucky enough to have one of those cars, you bought your fuel at the drug store.
Sugar cost four cents a pound. Eggs were fourteen cents a dozen. Coffee was fifteen cents a pound. Sounds good until you learn that the average wage was only 22 cents per hour.
The maximum speed limit in most cities was 10 mph. My granddad lived in Beaumont, TX and had one of those cars. He told me that people called him, “That reckless McCain kid who drives through town at 15 miles per hour.”
Only 6% of all adults were high school graduates. Most doctors had no college degree. Most women only washed their hair once a month, and used Borax or egg yolks for shampoo.
So if the world has changed that much in the last 100 years, how much will it change in the next 100 years. Don’t dismiss that as unimportant because many of our children’s children will live in that world.
The only reason I do not fear for that time is because I know the God who knew Adam and Moses and Paul and me, will still be around for them. I do not know what the world will be like in 100 years, but I know what God will be like.
As Isaiah wrote, “Have you not known? Have you not heard? The Lord is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He does not faint or grow weary.” (Isaiah 40:28).
Lonnie Davis