By Katy Mariotti
Jesus Is Forever
“Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever”
Hebrews 13:8, English Standard Version
Sometimes things in life that feel like they should be forever turn out to be temporary. I was thinking of this recently when taking my baby for one of his regular check-ups. It was only the second time we’d seen this pediatrician. She’s great, but I found myself missing our previous pediatrician, who had been our doctor since my daughter was born 11 years ago. When you have a doctor that long, it feels personal. We saw her in moments when we felt very vulnerable, emotional and worried. And yet, when she exited the practice, we didn’t even know about it right away, and then received an impersonal letter from our insurance. We didn’t get to say goodbye or find out where she was moving to.
I experienced this from the other side a bit when I was teaching. I was always attached to my students and I still feel like they are my children too, in a way, even after all these years. Yet I learned the hard lesson quickly that I was a temporary part of their lives. I was there for them when they were my students and then they moved on. At first I expected them to have the same kind of attachment to me as I had to them, and it felt hurtful that they seemed to leave me behind; but that’s the way it’s meant to be. I was meant to be a temporary moment in their lives, and that’s okay.
The temporary-ness of life is painful. Even the initials in this picture: we had the end of our driving repaved and I’ve always had a secret wish to draw in wet cement. But I did not realize how quickly cement actually dries, and by the time we went to write in it we were barely able to scratch the surface and we couldn’t see the letters the next day.
Thankfully for us, the pain of life’s impermanence is not present in our Lord. We have a God who is very personal and very permanent. He loves us so much that He sent His Son to join us and die for us. I don’t think it gets more personal than that. And as is promised to us in Hebrews, Jesus Christ is the same forever. I am so grateful for this promise in a temporary world!
Copyright Family of Christ Lutheran Church, Colorado Springs, Colorado
