Thought for the Day – Thursday 17th September
‘I, the Lord, do not change.’ (Malachi 3: 6a)
I don’t
know about you but I think the older I get the greater the temptation to return
to the places of my earlier life gets. Is it nostalgia or a desire to reminisce
or just getting older – who knows?
Like last
year taking time on holiday to visit Morecambe and walk once more around all my
old childhood haunts and then take a trip down Edward Street to see what my
Gran’s house looked like now. Or a recent trip along Castlehill Road in
Overtown while en route to somewhere else to have a look at what was
affectionately called in the family ‘number 73’ where my Nana and Papa lived. Just
this week on my day off a trip to Alloway to take one of our grandchildren
round Rozelle Park and, of course, make a detour on our walk to see our home
for many years which overlooked the park and where my children grew up. Even recently
a trip back along the road, as a detour while our grandson was sleeping, to
Shotts to revisit it and see the home where I lived until I was married.
One has to
ask yourself is all this reminiscing good for the soul, well I think I would
have to say in some ways ‘yes’ because it brings back a flood of fantastic
memories and lots of talk of good times but in other ways ‘no’ because so much
has changed and it can be quite upsetting to see. Gran’s house no longer looked
fresh and full of family and fun which it always was - indeed it was looking
quite drab and strangely somehow much smaller; all the wonderful rose-beds my
papa had planted in the shapes of a diamond, a circle, a square and a rectangle
in the middle of the lawns around which I used to play quite imaginatively and
which gave lovely fragrant roses for the house were all gone; in Shotts the
privet hedge my father had so tenderly nurtured from little saplings in our
front garden and of which he was very proud was now all gone – indeed the whole
garden was now untidy and a bit of a mess and the house looking rather shabby
not fresh and new and well cared for as it had been when first built and we
lived in it; and our house in Alloway had been extended beyond recognition!
It seems
nothing ever remains the same!
As the
years pass it seems that not only places change but also people change and
attitudes change and I suppose we change too and that can be unsettling.
Yet, these
words from God once spoken by Malachi to the people of Judah remind us that no
matter what else changes in life there is always one who does not change and
that is God. He says to us, ‘I, the Lord,
do not change’ and that has been true for generations and that has been believed
for generations and in a world where it seems nothing ever stays the same,
where we can be distressed or upset or perhaps even surprised by change knowing
the Lord does not change should be of great comfort to us.
Prayer
Loving Lord,
In a world
where we are surrounded by change which can be for the better and delight us or
can leave us feeling anxious or unsettled or distressed help us to remember
that you are there, a constant presence and always unchanging. May we, in any
time of change be drawn to you and trust in your presence, your promise and
your loving care. We ask this in Jesus’ name. Amen.
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