The First Issue–Living Words
From April 16, 1985
Read Colossians 1:9-20
Take a few minutes and reflect on the past years of your life. Isn’t it remarkable how these years run together in a blur of season and times. In the rear-view mirror life somehow seems so much easier and uncomplicated—probably than it really was. Certainly, the past appears less complicated than the years of change that lie ahead.
A quiet dread is present in us when we think about the future, because the future will bring about many changes. That is the one thing that is certain. We will have to go from where we are now and leave our comfortable niches. Everything on earth changes, winter, spring, summer, fall, each in its own turn.
It is, of course, the factor of change that alarms us when we think about the future. A future moving toward us signals that we are not in control of our lives and this is terrifying. The future may take us where we do not want to go…and it surely leads to the end of the road.
But among all the forces of change, there is a fixed point, a center spot on which to stand when everything else around changes. Your feet were first set on this fixed point at Baptism. The fixed point is found in the One who has always been by your side and who will be waiting at the end of all the changes with His arms open on the other side. This fixed point is like a beacon, shining with the assurance of mercy and hope even in a changing world.
Stop to think…since your Baptism, the Lord has brought you a long way…many times along dark paths. And yet, you are here today—still safe in him. Father of mercy, continue to sustain my hope in you.
Larry Neeb
