Every day as we look around us, things change. People change, positions change, prospects change and even our health changes. Some changes elicit new attitudes, growth and potential. Some do not. In the natural world, we wait in winter for plants to sprout, leaf out and eventually produce flowers or fruit. If we look upward into the cosmos, into realms we are just discovering, we even see changes and mysteries in the stars and galaxies we find so fascinating.
So what does it mean if there is “no variation or shadow, or turning” with God the Father? Does it mean that He is unresponsive? No, God is affectionately responsive and He is good. He always gives good “good and perfect gifts.” The gifts that He gives and the discipline that He allows, bring changes to us as we are regenerated and remade by the Holy Spirit. He loves steadfastly, slowly graces us with wisdom through His Word, reassures us with His care and presence as He watches over us as our Father. His giving of everything good remains fixed, beyond rock-solid as even rock is subject to change in a changing world. Only God remains unchanging in His character and in His giving in a changing world.
“Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change. Of his own will he brought us forth by the word of truth, that we should be a kind of firstfruits of his creatures” (James 1:17-18, ESV).
Suggested Reading James 1
