You, Lord, laid the foundation of the earth in the beginning,
and the heavens are the work of Your hands;
they will perish, but You remain;
they will all wear out like a garment,
like a robe You will roll them up,
like a garment they will be changed.
But You are the same, and Your years will have no end.
– Hebrews 1:10-12

“But You are the same, and Your years will have no end.”

We all witness to change; the different eras in our lives, the ongoing phases, seasons, changing values, society, government, environment, family, friends. I’m sure many of us can reflect upon the past years in a nostalgic kind of way realizing a depreciation of security and order as life ‘moves on’. Some of us in our nostalgia may view the years with good memories, some painful and sad. Some may have an abiding togetherness of family, others a longing to have back what they’ve lost; memories haunt as loved ones have passed on; an anguish to hold on to all that is dear and a fight to preserve amidst the inevitable sands of time. Fond memories echoing in the present wilderness sometimes holds one feeling alone and overwhelmed in this daunting and unfathomable world. For many of us, life may have moved on at a rapid rate while we struggle to keep up and make sense of the change that we wouldn’t necessarily be inclined to choose.

Many of us, myself for one, are prone to easily forget that while life moves on with all its complex change (and that can often be upsetting when we’ve found ‘our’ niche and like things to remain as they are) there is One who never changes… One who is not temperamental… One who abides the same through the age of time: “For I the Lord do not change” (Malachi 3:6); and our Lord “Jesus Christ, who is the same yesterday and today and forever.” (Hebrews 13:8). God is not static and frozen in time; He’s outside of it and mastered by no element of it because He created it! Who He is can never be subject to change; He is not liable to increase or decrease in His perfections – “I AM WHO I AM”. Before anything was: “I AM”; and He will remain after all creation passes: “Your years have no end”.

We should stand in awe when we contemplate that the uncreated and eternal Almighty God was the God of Abraham, Moses, David, the apostle Paul, the great leaders of the Church and is the very same God we worship in our current day. HE is here with us. For some, I would question whether they truly and sincerely believe this fact.

Our God has not changed one iota from the time He called Abraham and spoke to Moses from the burning bush, the Consuming Fire whose existence is never consumed and in whose nature has never been a shadow of turning beyond the foundation of the world, as there has been no beginning with God. Ageless: such thinking ought to occupy us for a lifetime… not even eternity could exhaust the depths!

This very One, the only God, knows our very name… knows our frame… knows our innermost thoughts, longings and desires. The uncreated beam (God’s all-seeing eyes) scans our naked spirit; nothing is hidden from His sight and in the hands of Omnipotence lies our future. He is well acquainted with our past, having a knowledge that is impossible to surpass. He is the infinite, Almighty Being who gives an eternally secure future, hope and peace and it is given freely to anyone who longs and thirsts for it; something this changing world could never acquire or give by its own merit.

As God’s sons and daughters we may often look back over the years with tears of pain; God knows what it all means and He calls us to “Remember not the former things, nor consider the things of old. Behold, I am doing a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it? I will make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert” (Isaiah 43:18-19).

Don’t pine for the past;
In God’s economy He always reserves the best ‘til last.
While the journey’s here improved with clearer vision,
And the mission’s mingled with greater sorrows,
We’re given greater joys indescribable for our tomorrows.

God is our Rock of ages, our Stability, our Security; unchanging while change all around takes place. He is our Hope, our Future – the Alpha and the Omega.

“Crown Him the Lord of years,
The Potentate of time,
Creator of the rolling spheres,
Ineffably sublime!
All hail, Redeemer, hail!
For Thou hast died for me:
Thy praise shall never, never fail
Throughout eternity.”

(Hymn ‘Crown Him With Many Crowns’ by M. Bridges, 1852 and G. Thring, 1874)