It is titled "Every Good Gift" and is written fully by Compassion Canada
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Our verse this week contains a juxtaposition. Do you know what it is? Hint: we touched on it in yesterday’s reflection on light.
"Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows." (James 1:17, emphasis added)
James contrasts heavenly lights and shifting shadows. Yesterday, we looked at how God is light and how that light shines His love into the darkness of our world. Today, we are going to travel to the other side of this tension and consider what James means when he comments that God “…does not change like shifting shadows.”
Shifting shadows is an obvious comparison to heavenly lights. We can all understand the contrast between light and darkness. Less obvious but implicit in this turn of phrase, is the element of faithfulness in contrast with unreliability. God is faithful and does not change as the shadows do. If God is light, then He is always light with no darkness in Him. (1 John 1:5) He is “the same yesterday, today and forever.” (Hebrews 13:8) We can trust that His gifts will always be good and perfect because His love never changes.
This teaches us an important lesson about love. Love does not come and go like shifting shadows, it remains constant and faithful. It is a light that does not change with shifting shadows of a world that is unstable and insecure. It is something others can rely on.
Prayer:
Father,
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Our verse this week contains a juxtaposition. Do you know what it is? Hint: we touched on it in yesterday’s reflection on light.
"Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows." (James 1:17, emphasis added)
James contrasts heavenly lights and shifting shadows. Yesterday, we looked at how God is light and how that light shines His love into the darkness of our world. Today, we are going to travel to the other side of this tension and consider what James means when he comments that God “…does not change like shifting shadows.”
Shifting shadows is an obvious comparison to heavenly lights. We can all understand the contrast between light and darkness. Less obvious but implicit in this turn of phrase, is the element of faithfulness in contrast with unreliability. God is faithful and does not change as the shadows do. If God is light, then He is always light with no darkness in Him. (1 John 1:5) He is “the same yesterday, today and forever.” (Hebrews 13:8) We can trust that His gifts will always be good and perfect because His love never changes.
This teaches us an important lesson about love. Love does not come and go like shifting shadows, it remains constant and faithful. It is a light that does not change with shifting shadows of a world that is unstable and insecure. It is something others can rely on.
Prayer:
Father,
You are faithful in Your love to me. Constant and never changing, I can rely on Your love and trust Your good gifts. The world around me may shift like shadows, but You stand in contrast to the world. Today, I ask that You will show me how to love others in the same faithful way that I might reflect Your character and goodness to a chaotic and turbulent world. Amen.
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