Malachi 3:6: “For I [am] the LORD, I change not; therefore ye sons of Jacob are not consumed.”
Beth and Tom are an elderly couple married over sixty three years. They are a very distinquished looking couple and by couple I mean couple. They are always together, they go to the doctor’s office together, church together, and whatever functions there are they do it together. For over sixty three years Beth and Tom have been lovers, friends and companions.
I asked how they met and Beth said they met by accident. Tom hit her with his car while she was on a bicycle. She broke her leg and ended up in the hospital. Every day Tom came to visit her bringing her little gifts and apologizing for the accident. She said the only way she would forgive him is if he married her and so he did.
They spent sixty three years together, raised three children who themselves grew up to be successful and raised a family giving them six grandchildren. They are the type of people you look at and think, yeah, they are the sturdy stock of America. They are a handsome, loving, happy couple, contented and enjoying their golden years together.
Every time I drive them to a doctor’s appointment they always have me drop them off at the Orange Garden Restaurant where they have their little date night. The Orange Garden Restaurant is the same restaurant where Tom proposed marriage to Beth sixty three years ago. The restaurant remains unchanged, same booths, same tables, same silverware, same place settings and same menu. They always order the chicken soup because that is what they had the day Tom proposed.
Wouldn’t it be wonderful is things would never change? However, the last time I picked Tom up for a doctor’s appointment he was alone. I didn’t say anything but he did ask before I let him off at the Doctor’s office if I would drive him to the hospital after his appointment. His sweetheart of sixty three years was there, she was not in very good condition. Tom said he did not need a ride home from the hospital. He would stay as long as the hospital would let him stay and then take a cab home. There would be no dinner at the Orange Garden on this day.
As I watch this once tall, elegant, proud and joyful man slowly step out of my bus, I saw for the first time an elderly, sad bent over man as he made his way to the entrance of the hospital. My heart cried out to God, “Why, oh God, why must things change? Why did you create us to bear such happiness only to snatch it away as we reached the end of this life? Why does there have to be old age, why do we do have to see loved ones pass? Why must there be change?”
I decided to drive by the Orange Garden on my way to my next assignment, I don’t know why, I just had to see that something didn’t change. As I drove by I saw that the restaurant was closed up and there was a sign on the window, “For Lease.” I then began to weep, it was another change. I wept not just for Tom and Beth but for myself as well for this only served to show that no matter how secure we can make this life on earth, it will change, it will end. My own life will change, nothing I have will last very long. I was overwhelmed with the words of Solomon in Ecclesiastes 1:2: “Vanity of vanities, saith the Preacher, vanity of vanities; all [is] vanity.” Solomon as the wisest man on earth realized that all was vanity. The word vanity in Hebrew is havel and it means emptiness, something that is transitory, not meant to last.
I then told the Lord that I was starting to fall into a real funk and He had better pull some rabbit out the hat. In that moment I suddenly thought of Malachi 3:6, “For I the Lord, I change not.” That word change in the Hebrew is shanah which is the same word for year. It is where the word Rosh Hashanah comes from. It means to repeat the year. The word shanah means to repeat, do again and again.
When God says He will not change what He is saying is that He will not need to repeat himself. You repeat something becomes it comes to end so you do it again. When Tom and Beth ate at the Orange Garden and ordered their chicken soup over and over again it is because that moment that joy they felt when he proposed had ended and they had to keep repeating the events of that moment to re-experience that joy. But God is saying that with Him we will never need to repeat old memories and joys, His special moments do not end, they are new every morning. Lamentations 3:22-23 tells us His joy, His mercies, His love are never consumed, they never end or fail they are new each morning.
I fell into a funk because I knew all that I enjoyed in this world will one day end, yet God has promised that He is unchanging, what I have in Him will never end and every day there is something new and exciting in Him. The joy I experience in His Word, that will never end, the joy I experience in learning about Him through His creation, that will never end, His beauty will continue for eternity and I will never have to look back to capture old joys for there will always be new joys ahead.
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