Religion: A Pastor Ponders

The certainty of change

By Pastor William Jenkins

January 12, 2007

For the first time in thirty years my wife and I would have Christmas day to ourselves. We decided that our Christmas gift to each other would be Christmas on the Riverwalk in San Antonio. From there we would make our way through the Hill Country towards Fredericksburg for New Years Eve.

Early Christmas morning while we were preparing to leave, the telephone rang. It was our daughter letting us know that the child she was expecting in six weeks was announcing an early arrival. Immediately a plan that had been in the works for ten months changed. There was no decision to be made, only action to be taken. Instead of a destination to the wide open spaces of west Texas, we traveled north to the enclosures of the Dallas metroplex.

Life surprises us like this occasionally. We can be sure that at some unexpected moment in this New Year something will cause us to make an immediate change in plans. Change is a certainty.

An old Greek proverb says: “Everything is flowing, changing, developing; nothing stays what it is or where it is – such is life.” The best laid plans are always subject to revision. Just this morning I received notice that a summer plan that had been in the works for over a year will need to change. The Christmas change was delightful; the summer change is a bit disappointing. Such is the nature of change.

The truth is that life would be rather boring if there was not an occasional occasion to change. Ecclesiastes 3 tells there is a time for everything under the sun; that would include a time to change. Christmas on the Riverwalk in San Antonio is something that can be experienced at another time; to be present for the birth of a certain grandchild happens only once in a lifetime.

Speaking of change, somewhere there are babies that need to be changed.

League City United Methodist Church is located at 1411 Main Street (FM 518), one block east of Interstate 45. For information, call the church offices at 281-332-1557 or visit the website at

HYPERLINK - http://www.lcumc.org