Last weekend the clocks changed. We moved ahead an hour for daylight-saving time. Baxter didn’t notice the change. I didn’t change the timer on his feeder, so his eating habits remained on the same interval. For us, he was eating at 3:45 AM and 3:30 PM on standard time, and now he has breakfast at 4:45 AM and dinner at 4:30 PM. For Baxter, nothing has changed. He gets hungry about a half hour before he eats and whines about it. The portions are the same on either time schedule, and he continues to wish he had more. When the clocks fall back or spring ahead, Baxter’s world remains stable, even if the rest of us may change our routines and wish for more daylight or more sleep. Cats live in the constant present, and they are not easily distracted from the routines that anchor their lives. The world around them may alter its ways, but they go on with their steady way of life.
God works this way as well. While the world goes through revolutionary changes in technology, politics, life style, economics and culture, God remains constant sustaining the good, caring for the lost and broken, forgiving our sins, and providing a loving presence in our midst. He doesn’t get easily rattled by the changes that come and go in our world. He adapts to them in the ways He shows Himself and ministers to our needs. God looks differently in different eras. Yet it is the same God in all these appearances, always with the same intentions, to love and save us. Because many changes in life disrupt our expectations and routines, we might have to search for God at first. He may not be how and where we expected Him to be from our past experiences, but He hasn’t abandoned us. He moves with us from our workplace to our retirement community, from our home to a care facility, from child-rearing to an empty nest, from school to a job, from health to sickness, from affluence to unemployment, from marriage to divorce, from death to eternal life. God is with us in every condition our lives assume. His constancy always fits.
Ironically, God’s ever present love makes Him easy to miss when things change for us. In new situations, we can get stuck on focusing on what we don’t have any longer and what isn’t the same, so that we can’t see what new blessings are offered now that may open new doors to a deeper spiritual life. With daylight-saving time, a darker morning brings a longer evening light. We miss a little sleep one night, but we can gain more daylight to enjoy a new season of our lives. God is in every season of life, but we have to look for Him in a different light and be grateful for the new viewpoint it brings.
Baxter’s steady presence is a blessing in my life now. God’s everlasting presence promises to make our whole life a blessing, no matter what the time or season. Look for God in whatever the present situations are in which we find ourselves. He’s there; He isn’t going anywhere; and He’s on time.
