Have you ever considered how much you have changed with the passing of the years… and the ways in which you have changed?

Once I was a child, young, carefree, honest, innocent, open-minded, surrounded by love and protection, living completely in the moment, little or no responsibility, more simple joys than sorrows, a time of laughter and play, great imaginative adventures, learning and exploration.

Walt Disney said: “Childhood is the world of miracle and magic.”  An unknown author said: “Childhood memories are timeless treasures of the heart.”  I agree and I have treasured memories of my childhood, where magic dreams were born, and time was never planned – a beautiful season of my life.

Time and life though have a way of moving on and childhood now seems so long ago. Indeed, there has been a lot of water under the bridge.

The world is shifting and swirling so fast, it is a fact that we live in an age when everything seems to be changing before our eyes. Technology has developed so rapidly that my children and grandchildren simply can’t believe that there was no television when I was a child, that we played out in the streets until dark and the telephone on the wall had a little handle you rapidly turned three times until an operator answered, “Number please?”

Technologies, customs, and lifestyles change in time. Climate, politics, international borders, currencies and even names of countries have changed. The world is caught up in sweeping change and we have witnessed alarming, even seismic shifts in core beliefs and faith amongst people.

And, yes, people change! In all likelihood, you and I have changed too! In effect, change is often regarded as the only constant.

Yet, we can take heart! Change is not the only constant. The wise Apostle, St Paul categorically states: Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever [Hebrews 13:8].

Amid an ever-changing environment, it is good to remember that there is one thing that never changes — Jesus Christ! Jesus is immutable; that is, he is unchanging. He was in the past exactly who he is in the present and precisely who he will be forever!

St Paul already challenged us to fix our eyes on Jesus and run the race with perseverance [Hebrews 12:1–2]. In doing so, we can live our lives without losing heart [Hebrews 12:3] and be assured Jesus will never forsake or leave us [Hebrews 13:5].

Yet all this encouragement and direction is only helpful if it is truth that Jesus is the same yesterday, today, forever.

“I am the way and the truth and the life” [John 14:6]. Jesus not only spoke truth, but he was also not capable of doing otherwise. Jesus is truth. It is his nature. He cannot be other than he is. When he spoke, he claimed an authority greater than that of the greatest of the prophets. Jesus is the perfect expression of God and therefore the absolute embodiment of all that is true.

It’s been said that truth cannot be adequately explained, recognised, understood, or defined without God as the source. Since God alone is eternal and self-existent and God alone is the Creator of all else, God is the fountain of all truth. Jesus is truth personified, the embodiment of truth. Then you will know the truth and the truth shall set us free [John 8:32].

Jesus taught and embodied leadership as service. The Son of Man did not come to be served but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many [Mark 10:45].

He is a leader not only because his followers love him, but because he loves his followers – a love that is transformative, and raises them to the dignity of his equals, his friends.

Jesus leads by both word and example. He draws us to himself by the attractiveness of his personality, by his unblemished goodness and perfection, as the Son of Man – as a man like ourselves in all things, except sin.

It is the encounter with Jesus that changes us forever, sets us free to a new engagement with the world, a freedom to become more generous in love and diligent in service. It is an encounter that stays with us always and colours the whole of our lives, calling us to a liberation of the heart such that we might be fully alive and active in doing the will of God.

Being the same yesterday, today and forever, Jesus is unchanging and unchangeable. Nothing we do will cause him to abandon us. His love is constant and forever. If you come to know the Jesus of the Gospels, you will know the Jesus of today, because he is exactly and precisely the same!

Have a golden day and treasure life!