There are signs that seasons are changing. Subtle shifts in temperature that let warmth prick your skin or a chill that reminds you winter is on its way. Seemingly all of a sudden Christmas decorations will begin to appear in store displays and people will begin making holiday plans! New aches and pains seem to show up and linger longer than they’re welcome as the years slip by. Seasons in life come and go. Some seasons are beautiful and marked with celebration and joy, while others weigh us down, threatening to crush the very life from our bodies as we endure grief and pain.

       Ecclesiastes 3:1 is one of the most consistently quoted scriptures for referencing seasons. Famously, the scripture reads that there is a season for everything. The chapter continues to highlight different seasons of life and reminds us of the ebb and flow of time and circumstance. In this text, Solomon does not treat changing seasons as interruptions in life but simply as a part of life as God designed it. This means that our seasons and circumstances changing should not catch us off guard, but instead lead us to the question of what remains unchanging in our lives. If everything changes, then what remains? This simple question leads beautifully to one answer - Jesus. Hebrews 13 leans into this steady truth as it highlights that Jesus is the same yesterday, today, and forever. So while there may be seasons for everything - being born, healing, breaking down, casting away, embracing, and even dying- there will never be a season where Jesus is not Jesus. His steadfast nature does not change, nor does His love wither in the cold of a resentful heart. Malachi proclaims beautifully in chapter 3 that God himself says, “For I the Lord do not change.”

       This is a steady truth that we rest in as our lives ebb and flow. As we wake up to new realities and wrinkles on our faces, we can know that our God does not change. Jesus is still who He has always been. This is why we so unwaveringly trust the Lord. While people are fickle and feelings are fleeting, Jesus is unchanging. When seasons are hard and cold, the warmth of the Father and His love are still waiting for His people. So while the promise of the Father is not that every season or day will be good, it is that He will always be with us. The same God who meets us in the spring when all is new and beautiful is the same God who will be with us through the winters. The landscapes may change, but His presence never does.

        Revelation 21 sums this truth up beautifully, a reminder that one day all of this world will pass away, but we will dwell with our God forever. The scripture in this chapter reminds us of a God whose self-proclaimed dwelling place is with man. He is a God who will dwell with us; we will be his people, and he will be our God. No matter what life looks like today, tomorrow, or ten years from now, we can hold unrelentingly to the fact that God is unchanging and He longs to be with His people.