My
grandfather loved to tell stories, and I loved to listen. Papaw had two kinds
of tales. “Whoppers” were stories with a whiff of truth, but which changed with
each new telling. “Adventures” were stories that really happened, and the facts
never changed when retold. One day my grandfather told a story that just seemed
too far-fetched to be true. “Whopper,” I declared, but my grandfather insisted
it was true. Although his telling never varied, I simply couldn’t believe it,
it was that unusual.
Then
one day, while I was listening to a radio program, I heard the announcer tell a
story that confirmed the truth of my grandfather’s tale. My grandfather’s
“whopper” suddenly became an “adventure.” It was a moving moment of remembrance
that made him even more trustworthy in my eyes.
When the psalmist wrote about the unchanging nature of God (102:27), he was offering this same comfort—the trustworthiness of God—to us. The idea is repeated in Hebrews 13:8 with these words, “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever.” This can lift our hearts above our daily trials to remind us that an unchanging, trustworthy God rules over even the chaos of a changing world.
