Constancy, change, and the gospel
Yesterday, work was slow at the BYU writing lab where I work, so my coworker and I spent most of the time chatting. She just got back from a mission and is graduating in August, and I’m probably going to graduate sometime next year. We talked about life, dating, marriage, post-graduation plans, and how we’re both at this really transitional period in our lives, with our undergraduate education mostly behind us. It’s an exciting and scary time of life for both of us.
I walked through the Wilkinson Center on my way back; one of my roommates was coming to pick me up at the pick-up drop-off place on the first floor. As I walked through, I noticed the paintings of Jesus Christ on east side of the building.
I can vaguely remember the first time I saw those paintings. I was a young high school student, visiting BYU to tour the campus with a group of other prospective students. I had arrived early in order to go to a concert in the east ballroom. I didn’t know anybody here, and I felt a little bit anxious and out of place. However, at the same time, I was blown away by the way religion and the gospel mixed with the BYU college culture, especially since I grew up in a place where I was the only Mormon in my high school. The paintings in particular really stood out to me.
Things have changed a lot since then; I was accepted to BYU, served a mission, came back and studied for the last three years, made lots of friends, learned a new language, wrote two novels, grew tremendously, and experienced countless other changes. In some ways, you could say that I’m a completely different person than I was back then.
And yet, in all that time, those paintings of Jesus Christ have been right there, in the same place they were when I first saw them. Over the years, the novelty has worn off and I’ve gotten used to the way the gospel shapes and influences the community here, but every now and then I’ll be walking around and notice the little things again. They’re still there, still reminding us of Jesus Christ, just like when I first came to this university.
I think that the gospel is a lot like these paintings. People change, people grow, life changes in unexpected ways, but no matter where you find yourself, some things are always there, always constant. Jesus Christ is always constant; no matter how we change, how much we come to take Him for granted, He will always be there, and His love and grace will always be constant. Our relationship with Him may change, sometimes for better, sometimes for worse, but whether we recognize it or not, His hand will always be in our lives, eager to bring us good things.
Where am I going to be ten years from now? Five years? I may experience more changes in the next five years than I have the last five years. Graduate school, marriage and family, work and career–who knows what’s going to happen? But even though all these changes can be exciting and scary at the same time, it is comforting to know that Jesus Christ and the gospel is a constant.
