Hi, I'm Joni Eareckson Tada and here’s a hymn I know you can sing with:
Great is thy faithfulness, Oh God my father
There is no shadow of turning with thee
Thou changest not, thy compassions they fail not
As thou has been thou forever will be.
Great is thy faithfulness, great is thy faithfulness
Morning by morning new mercies I see
All I have needed thy hands have provided
Great is thy faithfulness Lord unto me.
You know, when I sing about God's faithfulness, it always makes me think of the heavens, the constellations. As sure as it is now October, you can look up into the night sky and see the constellations shifting, reminding us that we are well into the season of fall. Say goodbye to the Big Dipper, Ursa Major, and Cassiopeia (well, Cassiopeia will still be around in autumn) but say goodbye to Andromeda, Aries, and Taurus, each of them faithfully marking the change of seasons. Truly, the heavens declare the glory of God! Hardly a night goes by lately when I don’t look up into the blanket of stars and whisper, “Jesus, thank you for such a beautiful witness as these stars.” And when I look up, amidst all the changing constellations, I always try to pick out the north star. Polaris, they call it. If I wheel outside on a dark night, there it is; I can always see it up in the sky on the north side of our house – all the other stars, all the other constellations revolve around Polaris, and that’s because the north star never shifts, it never changes.
And it’s such a great picture of our unchanging God. With Him there is no shifting, no shadow of turning. And that’s a good thing because I’m the kind of person who does not always handle change well. Whether it’s teaching a new helper how to get me up in my wheelchair in the morning, or saying goodbye to a old, reliable helper who has to move out-of-state. Change, for me, can be so unsettling; I’ll think, “Oh man, how is this now going to work out?” Frankly, helpers that keep changing in my life reveal how quickly I can become anxious; I’ll nervously think, “Oh, know, will I have someone to take care of me?”Well, that’s when I turn to my north star Bible verse; my Polaris verse, as it were. Malachi chapter 3, verse 6 where God assures me, “I am the Lord, and I do not change.” I mean, right there, isn’t that great? I’ve got to repeat it: “I am the Lord.” Malachi chapter 3, verse 6 says, “and I do not change.” God’s care and compassion for me (and for you) oh, friend it’s never going tochange. Oh sure, circumstances around you m He will always provide for our needs (often it’s just in the nick of time, but even that strengthens our faith, right?). So if your life is in turmoil; if everything around you is shifting and changing, sing this beautiful old hymn “Great is Thy Faithfulness” then grab your Bible and turn to that wonderful north star in Malachi chapter 3, verse 6. God doesn’t change.
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