05/12/2022 Principal's Note

By -
A month ago, we were averaging around 38 degrees for a high temperature in our area of Wisconsin; today, it will be 92 degrees. Welcome to spring in the Midwest! Aside from states where you can drive from the beach to the peak of a mountain in a few hours, I'm not sure there is anywhere else in the country where seasons collide as drastically. We are certainly accustomed to sudden changes in Wisconsin!

Change can be difficult. There are pages of jokes about Lutherans and change, and if you have been a member of a Lutheran church for your entire life, you probably have heard many of them. You can see another example if you spend a day in one of our classrooms at Emanuel when the regular teacher is out sick and a substitute teacher is filling in. Especially with our younger students, when that substitute doesn't do something exactly the same way as the regular classroom teacher, it can be very difficult for them to accept. These are small, sometimes funny, examples of how hard change can be; I'm not even going to get into the big changes like job changes, moving, marriage, children, pandemics, personal health issues, wars, inflation, death...you get the idea. In fact, if you look up a list of what causes anxiety conditions, many of them could be simplified as change.

God be praised that the most important aspect of our existence, our salvation, is not subject to change. The writer to the Hebrews had this to say: "Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever" (Hebrews 13:8, NIV 2011). Isn't that the most comforting thing you could understand about your God? Once you know him, you literally never need to worry about any aspect of him changing. He will ALWAYS love you, be with you, listen to you, and, most importantly, keep his promises. There is NOTHING else in this life that comes with that kind of certainty. True, it does make it easier to take him for granted (that's a devotion for another day), but go forward today and every day in peace, knowing that your Savior will NEVER change.

Have a blessed rest of your week!

In Christ,

Principal Bill Fuerstenau