Unchanging love regardless of detours

During your travels through hills and mountains, perhaps you noticed how the roads were constructed so passage could be made around treacherous mountain side or over a deep gully.

It’s amazing how our roads offer the traveler a safe and easy way of travel. As we see highways constructed and offering access to new territory little thought is given by most travelers about the necessity of keeping the road passable.

The one sign that we do not enjoy seeing on any road is the one that says, “Detour Ahead.” This summer we have been exposed to more than one and I wonder how many drivers have gone beyond the ‘Road Closed’ sign just to see how far they could travel. Another thing that amazes me is how the detour leads the traveler across the country when there are shortcuts available.

However, when the construction is completed, don’t we enjoy the newly surfaced road or the new bridge and everyone forgets the inconveniences they had to endure for a time.

I believe life is like that for mankind. There are times when a change takes place, when a different route is the only way available. Changes are not always welcome, but yet necessary. A person may be rich today and poor tomorrow. He may be sickly today and well tomorrow. He may be in happiness today, tomorrow he may be distressed.

But what about our relationship to God? Should there be any detours or changes there?

If God loved you yesterday He loves you today. Detours may appear. Prospects may be blighted, hopes may be blasted, joy may be withered and mildew may destroy things, but we have lost nothing that we have in God. The road will become new and better after the detour.

I trust the words of A.T. Peterson who was a fill in for Charles Spurgeon will be of encouragement to you. He said, “The lower down we are the more perishable everything is. The grass under your feet in the summer is one of the frailest things in nature; it grows and blooms today, it weathers and decays tomorrow. You ascend a little higher and you find the trees that last not only for one season, but many seasons, till you come to great trees like the Sequoia Gigantea in the California forests, that has been standing for three thousand years plus, but even then decay takes its toll and those trees also fall.

You rise above the level of the trees, and come to the hills that last for ages, though they are worn away by rain and snow, as hills become the beds of lakes.

You mount above the hills and there are what are called in the Bible, ‘Everlasting Mountains’ that have stood ever since the world began. You soar above the mountain, and you come to the planets that are constantly changing their places in the sky as they move around the sun in their annual journeys; but far beyond the planets stand the fixed stars that have never changed their place since time began.”

So you see the farther up you go, the nearer you come to that which does not change, and beyond all these is He who is “The same yesterday, today and forever.” He is the unchanging God and the unchanging friend of His people.

As we endure the detours before us don’t get discouraged because God travels with us on the road of life. Changes may come, but He still loves us with an unchanging love regardless of the detours we face.