Since returning from our Israel trip last year, several have asked whether or not Carol and I will organize another Holy Land trip.  We probably will, perhaps in two years.  Do you like to travel?  Travel brochures always seem to promise us the greatest trip of all.  Here's a 12-day tour I've devised that would definitely be the "trip of a lifetime."

          This trip covers a lot of ground.  If one year equals one foot, it has covered nearly a mile, roughly the distance from Meadow View school back to the Middle School.  If you are 50 years old, you've lived in the distance from here to the piano.  If you're 6 years old, you've lived in the six feet between here and the second row.  Compared to a mile, that's not very much.

          Does your life seem longer?  Have I made it seem insignificant?  I hope not, and yet, why is it that an hour in traffic takes forever, but a lifetime passes so quickly?  Our life can almost seem like the cactus flower that blooms and fades all in a just a day.  Life is so short.

          Throughout this mythical trip I've described, much time has changed, but one thing has remained the same - our God.  He doesn't change.  He has been with us every step of the way, and He is the one making all the good things happen.  The God who spoke to Abraham is the one who spoke to St. Paul.  The God who protected King David is also the God who protected Martin Luther.  The God who watched over the German immigrants watches over you and me today.  Through it all, God has remained alive and well.  He was there before the trip started, He is here today, and He'll be the same caring and loving Father a thousand years from now.

          God is in control and He is changeless.  His Son, "Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever." God is the same today as He was yesterday, and He'll be the same tomorrow.  We might not have a tomorrow, but if we do, He'll be there.  He is our eternal, ever-present Lord, providing for His people, forgiving their sins and giving them hope.

          Some people feel insignificant because they are short or small.  Consider how small we all are.  This building is bigger, our city is bigger, our state, our country, our earth, our sun, the galaxy, the universe - each one is bigger than the other, and yet God is bigger than them all.  He made the universe and He made the earth, and He has made you and me.  That makes us seem so tiny.  If this room were the state of Colorado, you and I would be no larger than a couple of tiny specks of dust flying around.

          Yet over all this is a God who cares.  He cares for you and He cares for me.  He loves the genius and He loves the slow learner.  He died to redeem the champion and He died to redeem the invalid.  He cares for the young woman and the old man, for the rich and the poor.  His Son Jesus died to earn salvation for the Lutheran and the Baptist, for the believer and the atheist.  "Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever."

          God was here before there were Rocky Mtns. and He will be here a thousand years from now.  Today He is the same as He was yesterday, and tomorrow He'll still be here, knowing the thoughts of each seemingly tiny and unimportant person who walks a path through this world.  He is the Creator and Preserver.  He is the Lover of all, because He is God.  His creative love gives us worth for this life and the next.  To God, there is no unimportant person.

          And yet we get so uptight with life!  I once took a personality profile and discovered that I am a detail person who gets nervous when things aren't quite right.  I can let my worries, no matter how small, become huge obstacles that terrify.  Yet God has blessed us so greatly.  We have homes and a means of a living.  We don't live in Bangladesh where typhoons kill thousands every year.  We don't have earthquakes or live in a ghetto.  Yet we get so worried about the small troubles of life.

          We people are easily shaken.  Families are feeling the jolt of uncertain times, and individuals are getting lost in the maze of complexity.  People are fearful for our nation and world and see the disrespect for God all around us.  People are buying guns and using them on each other.  You and I aren't sure we can trust each other.  We want more than we're getting and it's making us worried and angry and frantic.

          Even within church bodies, so much that is unimportant is elevated to a high position.  We Missouri Synod Lutherans split hairs in our doctrinal statements and then forget to love people.  We are an autonomous fellowship of congregations, but now synod leadership wants to control what congregations believe and teach.  We talk about God's love for everyone and then withhold Communion from non-Lutheran believers.  I believe Jesus described this very thing when He said, "You blind guides!  You strain out a gnat but swallow a camel whole." (Matthew 23:24)

          Despite however churches may change, "Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever."  He can change us.  He will see us through uncertain times.  He can overcome the evil around us.  In fact, He already has.  Trust Him - He is the only one we can count on.  There is no problem so big He cannot fix it - or help us live in spite of it.  There is nothing so small He cannot see it.  There is no one unimportant to the Lord.

          The greatest speech of a world leader is not as profound as the words of a child saying bedtime prayers.  Our Heavenly Father numbers the hairs on our head.  He sees us in our need.  He gives us the life of His only Son that you and I might be set free from the trivialities that squeeze life from us, the evil that tries to overwhelm us.  The blood of Jesus Christ on Calvary's cross cleanses us.  It forgives our past with its failures and opens to us a future filled with hope.

          Young Karl Schmidt was a German teenager during WWII.  He was in Hitler's "Jugendreich" and taunted prisoners of war.  Then Hitler died and Germany lost the war and Karl's world crashed down.  He moved to America, got a job and was thrilled when John F. Kennedy was elected president.  But in 1963 his world crashed again with JFK's death.  Karl was so distraught that he considered suicide.  His parents were dead, his idols were dead.  What was left for him?  But God hadn't forgotten him.

          One day Karl remembered a Bible verse, the words of Hebrews 13:8, and prayed for the first time in years.  He began studying the Bible and a few years later entered the seminary.  One day in a motel room in 1972 Karl was with me and several other pastors.  He had been telling us his amazing story when Ray Pederson, another Lutheran pastor, said, "I was a prisoner in Germany during that time."  It turned out Pastor Ray Pederson had been in the very town where Pastor Karl Schmidt lived.  One was a prisoner inside, the other taunting prisoners on the outside.  But now both were Lutheran pastors.  "Jesus Christ is the same, yesterday, today and forever."

          It's True!  You and I are more than mere specks of dust in the air.  We're part of a plan our Lord has put together to bring us to heaven.

          Cling to Jesus with faith and forget all the stuff that weighs you down.  He's the "Rock of our Salvation," the "Light of the World."  Prudential wants you to buy a piece of the rock, but God gives us the Rock of Salvation free of charge.  What I have said is not fantasy or unreality.  It's the stuff of truth and faith.  It's the stuff of life with God.

          God loves us enough to make sure we'll be with Him in heaven.  He has loved us with an eternal love and bids us share that kind of love with each other.  He gave His life that we might be forgiven and blessed, here now, and there with Him forever.  "Jesus Christ is the same, yesterday, today and forever."

          Cling to the Lord and let Him have your troubles.  Put all those potential disasters out of your mind -- God will see us through them.  Put negative people of your mind -- they will answer to God.  Fear not those who threaten your body but cannot touch your soul -- rather fear God who has given you both.  Give your troubles to Jesus -- He can manage them far better.  Leave your personal desert of pain and heartache, and come to the green pastures of the Good Shepherd Who gave His life for us all.  Turn from your problems of life and look to the Eternal God who gives us life through our loving Lord who is the same, yesterday and today and forever.  Amen

Copyright © 2000 by Pastor Bob Tasler.  All rights reserved.