journey onWord with us

In writing tonight, I am both stealing and skipping ahead.  Skipping to the chapter we will end this week reading, and borrowing (a more accurate accusation) from words I wrote more than four years ago.   Thank you, Spirit, for the prompting that led me to them.  They have spoken a peace into my right now, and I am trusting it is intended for more than just me.

On an April morning in 2013, I opened my iPad, launched the Bible app and was met by the following verse of the day.  How beautiful to find it again today.

Hebrews 13:8 (ESV, NLT, HCSB, NIV, CEB, NASB)
Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever.

When I read those words again, it prompted another cleansing exhale.  They were once again the words of a needed “casting” of my cares on Him (1 Peter 5:7).  They are the very real experience of biblical truth, that in the midst of a crowded and tumultuous life, Jesus, and all that He is, remains the singular constant.

The bright, shiny, blinking lights of our circumstances so often cause us to take our eyes off Him and focus on them.  We see Jesus as a flat line above our circumstances.  We perceive closeness or distance as our life spikes and falls moment-by-moment in the direction of joy or pain.

However, having sat a fair spell with verse 8, I now see the chart quite differently.  The flat line representing Jesus is increasingly thicker, to the point where it spans or covers the spikes.  I believe the truth of verse eight declares that even in our most intense moments of pain or joy, we never leave that line.  There is no varying closeness or distance as our circumstances rise or fall.  Jesus is ever-present and unchanging, and our circumstances never dip or extend beyond Him.  He is unchanging.  He is ever-present and sufficient.

You may have taken notice of the multiple translations listed after the chapter and verse reference above.  In consuming or studying Scripture, I often seek multiple translations.  As I did on that April morning years ago, with the exception of commas and an “and” here or there, translation after translation all spoke the same words.  The same verse.  The same words.  The same Jesus … yesterday, today, and forever.

There is one other significant truth I feel is worthy of note in this context.  I found it in the closing sentence of chapter thirteen verse seven.  In the words of The Message, it reads as a powerful preface to verse 8…

There should be a consistency that runs through us all. For Jesus doesn’t change — yesterday, today, tomorrow, he’s always totally himself.

Whether soaring or in the swale, There should be a consistency that runs through us all in the midst of our circumstances.  Holding onto our unfailing and unchanging Ever-present Constant, we can remain faithful and true.  You and I have the opportunity to show Jesus by the way we navigate our everyday.  We cannot do it without Him, but we can do all things in the power of the One who loved us first.  He went to cross and conquered the grave to redeem us.  He is the Ever-present Constant in the peaks and troughs of eternity present.

Jesus was the same on that April morning in 2013 as He is as I write tonight.  My to-do’s and trials have changed, but He has not.  He was my Ever-present Constant then.  He is my Ever-present Constant now.  And He will be for each and every today God numbers for you and for me.  He is the same in April, November, and forever.