Variation and Shadow of Turning

"Every good and perfect gift is from above, and comes down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow of turning." James 1:17


Six months ago, I resigned from a job that I had thoroughly loved for six years. Since then, it seems that my world is constantly turning in new ways. Wonderful ways, mind you, but definitely turning. And if "variety is the spice of life," as someone has said, then my life would definitely be asterisked on the menu, with the warning: "*not for the faint of heart."

However, I have found out that I really like to stop turning, sometimes. The last thirteen years I have lived in the same house...longer, in fact, that I have resided in one single place, consecutively, in my entire life. When I was a little girl, my dad served churches and was appointed to a new one every 3 or 4 years. By the time I was 11, I had lived in Gainesville, Georgia, and Lambert, Columbus, Itta Bena, and Starkville, Mississippi. Believe it or not, I have cognitive memories of all of those places, even Gainesville, where I lived for only one month after my birth. Okay, I admit, my Gainesville memories were established 28 years later when I briefly dated a Methodist pastor whose family had a lake house there. But in all the rest, I have the treasure of warm memories of community and friendship that helped to establish the anchor of life.

When I was 11, in 1971, Daddy went into fulltime itinerate evangelism and he has lived in the same house since then -- almost 40 years. My brothers and I go "home" to that house for his birthday and several other special occasions throughout the year. (Thanksgiving, Christmas, every Mississippi State ballgame you can name...) I, however, have lived in no less than five different cities in five different states, since then, returning to Starkville in between each "foreign" adventure, during which time I have occupied upwards of 15 different domiciles. From 1977, when I entered Oral Roberts University as a freshman, until I bought my first home in 1990, I lived in 12 different dormitories or apartments. That's almost one new place per year. When I was 26, my mother expressed concern, at yet another move, because she believed that I am a "nester." If that is true, then like most migrating birds, at that time, I built my nest and tore it apart, almost annually, only to rebuild again!

While it is true that since 1990, I have lived in only two houses, I have during that same time, traveled more than 750,000 miles across the world, to at least 20 different countries, and some 43 of these United States. Since moving into this house 13 years ago, I have occupied three different bedrooms, changing the furniture in each numerous times. No wonder that we still stub our toes on the furniture in the dark! A blind person would lose his mind in our house!

"Turning" and "variety" are the definition of my life. I like change. I enjoy experiencing new things. But I also reach deep to squeeze the goodie out of each experience, and to establish bonds that last in each relationship. I don't give up on friends easily, and I re-visit the past frequently, geographically, emotionally, and spiritually.

What I have found is that I absolutely depend on the fact that, with the Lord, "there is no variation or shadow of turning." I recently learned that the words used in this passage have to do with the variableness of heavenly bodies -- planets, stars, moons -- and the "shadows" that are cast on our existence, as a result. Those shadows are changing seasons, tides, and orbits through space, the length of days and nights, heat and cold, the brightness of the sun and moon, or the clouds that dim the light. All of these are created things. Created things change.

But the Creator does NOT change. "There is no variation or shadow" with Him. No matter the orbit of created things around Him, He remains faithful and true, just and merciful. His Word remains and it accomplishes the things He intended. His plan cannot be thwarted, and He works good from everything that might turn in our lives.

This evening, I was watching that wonderful old movie, "The Swiss Family Robinson." On their first night after shipwreck on a deserted island, when the father is despairing of hope for the future, and blaming himself for their predicament, the mother wraps her arms around him and speaks a strong word of hope. "What we set out to do was a good and right thing. Just because we were shipwrecked on the way does not change that."

Shipwrecks, job loss, financial distress, cancer, divorce, addictions, depression...our lives are full of variation and shadow. But in Him, Jesus Christ, Who is the same yesterday, today, and forever, there is no variation or shadow of turning. He is our firm foundation and the strong tower to Whom we run.