A New York Times piece, “No way to grow up” (David Leonhardt, January 4, 2022), serves as one of many wake-up calls to reverse the impact of the pandemic on our schools and children, which has included learning loss, increasing gun violence, mental health challenges, and isolation. The article quotes the president of the National Parents Union as saying, “The No. 1 thing that parents and families are crying out for is stability.” Stability is indeed yearned for in so many avenues of life these days across the globe—a strength and permanence that can be found even in the midst of great change or turmoil.
Stability is a common theme of many writers in the Bible, who wrote in tumultuous times about the stability, calm confidence, and progress gained from understanding God as the supreme power, far superior to the conflicting so-called powers of the day. In Psalms we read: “Truly my soul silently waits for God; from Him comes my salvation. He only is my rock and my salvation; He is my defense; I shall not be greatly moved” (62:1, 2, New King James Version). Building on the Rock referred to in the Bible writers’ teachings, we stand secure with God as our ceaseless source of undisturbed peace, steadiness, and power.
When things we have held dear are unsettled, changing, being questioned or debated, or even lost, we find that the same saving Rock the Psalmist found—the eternal, spiritual foundation of divine Love, God—is still present.
