My youngest daughter is trying her hand at gardening this year. She is so proud of her “babies” as they bloom and produce. She even has pictures.
However, one unexpected thing happened during this crop season. The cucumbers didn’t turn out exactly like she expected them to. They are round. They look like miniature watermelons. They taste great, but they don’t look like cucumbers.
Oh well. I’m sure she will figure it out before next growing season and the mystery of the round cucumbers will be solved. That’s just the way she is wired. No problem too big or too small.
Those weird, shaped cucumbers got me to thinking about how life’s little (and sometimes big) surprises can come out of nowhere. One phone call or one knock on my office door can change everything. The car starts making a strange noise, the A/C poops out at home, the boss calls you into her office, that routine bloodwork you had done turns out to be anything but routine. Suddenly, that peace and ease we get from things staying the same is gone.
Every day brings new challenges and new hope. Often times, we are just looking for stability and consistency. We want peace. One thing I have come to realize is that true peace doesn’t come from things staying the same, but rather it comes from God staying the same. It doesn’t matter whether the upheaval in our lives is a result of our own, sinful choices or the result of living in a fallen, evil world, the faithfulness of God never fails.
In the book of Lamentations, the great prophet, Jeremiah shares his feelings of despair over the falling of Jerusalem to Babylon. There is no doubt that this is the result of God’s judgement upon the Hebrew people for their sin of turning their back on Him. Jeremiah had witnessed God’s people taken into exile under Nebuchadnezzar and the total destruction of their once great capital city. And yet, he went on to write,
“I recall this to my mind, Therefore I wait.
The Lord’s acts of mercy indeed do not end, For His compassions do not fail.
They are new every morning; Great is Your faithfulness.”
In another version it says, “Because of the Lord’s great love, we are not consumed.”
Even in judgement, God still loves us with a never-ending love. In fact, His mercies are new every morning. Every dawn is a symbol of God’s love breaking through and His mercy overcoming our troubles. Every day, a new batch is made available to us.
Yes, things change, but God doesn’t. There are no surprises to Him. For those who follow Him as Lord and Savior, His promise is, “We are not consumed.”
