The only relationship that never changes

It seems like yesterday that my three children were running around the house learning to walk and talk for the first time. Now I have grandchildren doing that. I find myself asking, “How can this be? I was just getting used to being their father and now they are having children!”  Most of us don’t take kindly to change, especially the change that moves loved ones out of a comfortable position in our lives. If you are like I am, you love your well-worn ruts and you want them to stay that way. Relationships make for the deepest and most comfortable ruts of all.  There is a hurt that accompanies such a change, even though God planned for the change that I experienced to kick in sooneor later. But some of these changes are not planned, like the loss of a loved one through death or divorce, or the change in a relationship through serious health problems. It is at this point in our lives when we really begin to understand our vulnerability and our need for a tighter grasp on the Divine Hand. Our non-Christian friends often suggest to us that faith in God is for weak people. I used to be offended at that. Not anymore. I think they are right. It is for weak people. Their serious error, however, is in assuming that they are not weak. Weakness is a part of the human condition. Pity the person who has yet to discover that fact. It may come as a terrible blow. Especially if he has never learned to lean on the One who remains solidly intact when the ground breaks up under everything else. The Apostle Paul experienced the terrible vulnerability of weakness. That great man of God who appeared to be the model of spiritual strength was visited by a “thorn in the flesh” so painful and debilitating that he cried out three times to God for its removal. It never happened. But lest you get the idea that God wasn't paying attention, something even greater happened. He learned what it was like to be truly enveloped by the grace of God. He learned what God meant when He said, “My power is  made perfect in weakness.” The result of this experience can be gleaned through Paul’s own words: “For when I am weak, then I am strong.”  (2 Corinthians 12:10).

Changes come. Loved ones in our lives leave, run away or are tragically removed. But God never leaves us. This universal promise and its experience is the glory of life and a major reason why everyone of us needs a
relationship with “the God of all comfort."

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