Good morning, and welcome.

 Today, I could have utilized the services of Microsoft Co-pilot in drafting this Thursday Thought, as it was loaded as an update to my Office suite.  However, I politely declined and disabled the app.  I’m not fearful of A I, but have been doing rather well, I think, writing without it’s “helpful” suggestions all these years.  Although I know I use it by default in other ways…the search engines being one of those ways…I don’t see the need to begin using it now in a writing capacity.  So, what you will hear today…and going forward…will be my own words.

 Bob Dylan wrote the song, “The Times…They Are a Changin’” in 1963.  It was released on an album in 1965.  One of the lines in the song is, “You better start swimmin’ or you’ll sink like a stone, for the times, they are a changin.”  Sometimes I get that feeling, especially with all of the “new stuff” that comes out about every ten minutes or so.  The various manifestations of artificial intelligence are just one of those things.  And, of course, you can think of many other changes and “new stuff” that have come about in the last while.  I sometimes wonder if the human race is going to run away with itself some time.

 However, even in these times of incredible change, there are those things which tend to bring us back to a reality that is more grounded…more gentle on the spirit.  Think of the seasons of the year.  Yes, they change, at least in our part of the world.  But the change comes on gradually, almost imperceptibly.  They give us time to adjust from spring to summer, fall to winter.  And there’s always the promise of new spring growth, summer produce from the garden, the fall colors, and the winter snows.

 Then there are those things which indeed change, but do so over a period of time that makes that change invisible to us.  I’m thinking of things such as the constellations in the heavens, which, the astronomers tell us, are changing shape due to the motion of the stars that make them up.  Yet we cannot in our lifetimes discern that change in shape.  To us, they are a constant…something fixed.  Something that has been a part of human history for eons.

 In speaking to Job in the book in the Old Testament by that same name, God asks Job if he can control the stars.  He specifically mentions two well-known constellations…The Pleiades and Orion.  “Can you bind the chains of the Pleiades? Can you loosen Orion’s belt?” God asks.  And, of course, Job has no response at that time.

 I’ve said before that one of Archie Bunker’s lines in the old “All In the Family” TV series was, “I like change better when everything stays the same.”  But for better or worse, change is inevitable.  We may not see it.  We may not perceive it.  We may think that we’ll just go on with life and living like we always have.  And there are times when we can “disable” some change like I disabled Microsoft Co-Pilot.  My disabling the app, however, doesn’t mean that it no longer exists.  It’s still there on my laptop.  And it, along with other artificial intelligence applications, are spreading like a virus…pardon the expression…into the world scene regardless of whether I use it to help me write or not.

 I’ll close this by going to a place where I’ve gone before…God and his unchangeable nature.  “I am the Lord,” God says.  “I do not change.”  The Psalmist says, “You remain the same; your years will never end.”  In the face of change…whether that change is swift and easily seen, or whether that change takes thousands of years to detect, God remains the same.

 If you’re anything like Archie Bunker, you’ll appreciate the unchanging nature of God.  You can rest assured that what He is, says, and does today has always been, and will always continue to be…the same.  And that means that his promises, his love, his justice, his mercy, his kindness, his purity, his goodness…always have, are, and will be…the same.

 May God bless you with his unfailing and unchanging love in this time of sometimes radical and incredible change.