A few years back one of our daughter’s and her family stayed with us for a couple of months while her husband was searching for a new job. They had been full time RVers, and he had a “work from home sales job,” but they were ready to come off of the road. God blessed him with a new job in Colorado, so they started preparing to move up there.

As all of this was happening, their older model Jeep Patriot, which they owned free and clear, started having problems. He had made a trip up to Colorado and was driving back to our place when the car started shaking. It got so bad he had to pull over. The clutch was shot. And the shaking caused a tie rod to bend. He paid for the repairs and came back to Texas to get ready for the move. He had to add a “tow package” to his car so they could pull a trailer up to Colorado with their possessions, which meant more money spent on that vehicle.

The day arrived for the move. We had loaded up the rented trailer and they headed out. About 15 minutes later, I got a phone call that their car was dead on the side of the road. Now the transmission was shot. Having put $4000 into that car already, they traded it in for a new vehicle and got less than half of that amount for the trade in.

Things wear out. They don’t last. That is the way of this world. So much of what we have and use is considered disposable. In fact “planned obsolescence” has become part of our vocabulary. And a common phrase we have all heard and said it “nothing lasts forever.”

Well, almost nothing. As far as this world is concerned, in its fallen, sinful state, things will not last forever. However, there is something permanent, unchanging and lasting that we can count on.

The grass withers and the flowers fall, but the word of our God stands forever. Isaiah 40:8.

God’s Word is something you can count on. It is what tells us about His plan of salvation. It is what points us to Jesus, the one who is called the Word made flesh. It tells us that in spite of our sin, which should keep us out of heaven, Jesus paid our penalty to allow us to be forgiven by our God.

Isaiah 51:6 reminds us: the earth will wear out like a garment and its inhabitants die like flies. Our fallen, sinful world and the things in it have no lasting value. They will wear out and be discarded. But in God’s Word we have promises that last, assurances that endure: forgiveness, life and salvation because of what Jesus did for us.