“. . . the same yesterday and today and forever.” — Hebrews 13:8
One of the spare bedrooms in our home is designated as the grandkids’ room, furnished with bunkbeds, decorated with children’s type artwork, shelves filled with children’s books, and toys and games galore. It has served its purpose well, except now our grandchildren are growing up, either teenagers or fast approaching, so the weekend sleepovers have all but ground to a halt. Recently Tee asked our middle granddaughter, Corrina, age 13, how she would feel if we converted that room back into a normal adult bedroom. Corrina glared sternly at her grandmother before responding in no uncertain terms, “Grantee, don’t you dare change that room!”
I get it. Certain things represent stability in our lives, things we can count on, that make us feel safe and keep us grounded. Had she not asked I’m not sure Tee and I would have realized that grandkids’ room in our house represented that in our grandchildren’s lives.
When I grew up we lived in the same house we moved into when I was two years old. My dad was the second-generation owner of a family business founded by my grandfather that perpetuated for sixty years. I graduated high school with the same classmates I had had since first grade. My parents were married almost sixty years, and likewise Tee and I have been married almost fifty-four. Stability is something I have always known, and I realize more and more how it has served to keep me grounded.
Stability is not as common as it once was. The average family, they say, moves about every three years. “The median length of employment for workers between twenty-five and thirty-five is 2.8 years,” according to Steve Cadigan in his book Workquake. And no wonder, as Cadigan also reports, the average “shelf life” of today’s job skills is less than one year due to rapidly changing technology. It is a rapidly changing world indeed!
So, where do we find stability in today’s world, and how can we find ways to provide it for the younger generations? Everyone needs something and someone they can count on, that makes them feel safe and keeps them grounded. Yet, even that grandkids’ room will change – eventually. There is One, though, I have found who never changes, He’s “the same yesterday and today and forever,” and the only true stability – for all generations.