Follow Me: No Shadow of Turning

Walking through a lovely park recently, I saw one of my favorite garden-type features standing in an open space and bee-lined right over. It was not the glorious foliage of nature but a sundial, which always has great personal meaning. I didn’t go over to see if it was working or check my watch but to view the steadfast gnomon—that projecting piece on a sundial that creates the monitoring of daylight time by the casting of its shadow.

What’s the meaning behind this impulsive observation? It’s an assurance that emboldens my desire to heed the great invitation offered by Jesus Christ of “Follow Me” (Matthew 4:19). We find it in James 1:17-18: “Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and comes down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow of turning. Of His own will He brought us forth by the word of truth that we might be a kind of firstfruits of His creatures” (emphasis added throughout).

Did you catch that? “No variation or shadow of turning”! Magnificent and sweet words that express a reality beyond human imagination but for the guidance of God’s Spirit to help us understand. Frankly, this passage anchors me and is intended to do so! It is a great visual reminder about a spiritual reality regarding not only our Heavenly Father, but His Son Jesus Christ. After all, Jesus proclaimed, “Anyone who has seen Me has seen the Father” (John 14:9, Amplified Bible). Indeed, we might say, “Like Father, like Son!”

And the wonderful truth is, They are always there for us.

God is always at high noon!

My goal for a few shared moments with you is to implant a concept so deeply within you that you will join me in striving to never turn from a gracious, loving and steadfast God in whom there is “no variation or shadow of turning” towards us. Remember: A sundial can only function in physical sunlight—but God is always at high noon, even in our darkest moments!

We live in a frenetic world that is constantly moving and ever changing. For a few minutes let’s follow God’s admonition to David: “Be still, and know that I am God” (Psalm 46:10). Let’s note a couple scriptures in which both our Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ, the living Word of God (John 1:1-3, 14), are presented as steadfast and standing fast for our spiritual well-being.

Malachi 3:6 shares God’s personal self-disclosure: “For I am the Lord [the Hebrew name Yhwh here meaning He ever exists], I do not change.” God simply “is”—always. Both the Father and the One who became Jesus Christ share this name—and the first person form “I AM” (Exodus 3:14; John 8:58)—“who is and who was and who is to come” (Revelation 1:8). This identity speaks not only of Their omnipotent self-sustaining power and eternal existence, but also of God’s unchanging character and relational attributes. The immortal heartbeat is summed up in 1 John 4:8-9: “For God is love. In this the love of God was manifested toward us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through Him.” Thus, Jesus coming to earth in the flesh was God’s love for us personified—once and forever.

In Hebrews 13, we see God’s promise “I will never leave you nor forsake you,” then followed with this assurance: “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever” (Hebrews 13:5-8).

A light in darkest moments

This is the same Jesus who said: “I am the Light of the world. He who follows Me shall not walk in darkness, but have the light of life” (John 8:12).

He is the One who brought light into the dark world of the man born blind, this healed man declaring, “Though I was blind, now I see” (John 9:25). Sadly, that man’s confession led to being ostracized by his neighbors, family and religious circle. Yet in this darkest hour, Jesus seeks him out and asks, “Do you believe in the Son of God?” (verse 35). And now this disciple-in-the making not only physically sees, but spiritually sees, learning that like His Father, the Son of God does not budge—He is likewise always at high noon. This man’s moment of insight needs to be our moment too.

You see, it’s one thing to believe that Jesus is the Son of God, but it is quite another to continually grow in belief that He is always at high noon even in our darkest moments. Did He not give us His fixed position to embrace and internalize in His promise to us? He said, “Lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age” (Matthew 28:20).

But perhaps we are not worried so much about “the end of the age” as we are about the immediate moment we are experiencing—maybe one where all the lights have seemingly gone out and you feel abandoned, or even stuck in “the valley of the shadow of death” (Psalm 23:4).

Maybe you’re thinking God has turned and left you after all. But allow me to ask a question, please. If you sense a broken relationship with Him, is it He in whom there is “no variation or shadow of turning” who has turned from you, or is it you who have turned from Him? Let us be honest as to who has moved and return to the light.

Jesus’ trust of His Father in the face of death

Let me remind you of three simple yet profound verses uttered by our Savior—the One who says, “Follow Me” and most importantly practiced what He preached in the face of approaching and engulfing darkness and death.

In a moment of darkness in the town of Bethany, as friends and family mourned the death of Lazarus, Jesus spoke before his opened tomb for all to hear, including down to our day: “Father, I thank you that you have heard Me. And I know that you always hear Me” (John 11:41-42). Jesus knew that with His Father—our Father too—there is no shadow of turning in time of need.

In a darkened garden on the last night of His human experience, we find Jesus praying to His Father that there might be an alternate ending to what our Savior was about to experience for our sakes. He passionately implored, “Father, if it is Your will, take this cup away from Me . . .” (Luke 22:42). Yet in the face of the answer from Above remaining the same, our spiritual champion already stated His personal resolute position in the words that followed: “. . . nevertheless not My will, but Yours, be done.” There would be no variableness or shadow of turning either from God Above or “the Son of Man” below.

Jesus’ dying breath says it all to each of us. Luke 23:46 records: “And when Jesus had cried out with a loud voice, He said, ‘Father, into Your hands I commit My spirit.’ Having said this He breathed His last.” This verse seizes upon the moment and shares a snapshot of our Savior’s inner awareness that even as His vision was blurred by the encrusted blood on His face from the crown of thorns jammed onto His head, He knew and gained comfort from the fact that His God, our God, is always at high noon even at midnight. We recognize His knowing and comfort here in His declaring in a “loud voice”—that we might hear down to our day and take heart.

Turn back, and stop turning away

Again, we should ask, who has moved? Perhaps like Israel of old you have turned and walked away and thought your relationship with our Creator is over and done! But just like ancient Israel, God is never done with us as disciples of Jesus Christ who constitute a renewed spiritual Israel (Galatians 6:15-16) if we will only return to Him. And He will help us in that.

What God declared to His people in Jeremiah 29:11-13 applies as well to you today: “For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope. Then you will call upon Me and go and pray to Me, and I will listen to you. And you will seek Me and find Me, when you search for Me with all your heart.”