Check Out Your Toothpaste

Have you ever wondered how stripes get in toothpaste? I read a brief history of toothpaste recently. In 1955 Leonard Lawrence Marraffino invented the red, white and blue stripes using the science of thixotropic rheology. As you squeeze the tube at any point stripes appear, it remains the same - until it runs out.

As I was contemplating the important truth of today’s scripture, I was trying to think if there was anything else that remains forever the same. It appears that the world and everything in it is constantly changing.

Take technology, for example, and how simple methods of communication have become the sophisticated devices we have at our fingertips today. For instance, this daily devotional rapidly reaches email inboxes across the world.

Weather conditions are often considered to be changeable. Some call talking about the weather an obsession of the British, but it’s true we can experience four seasons in one day here in the UK.

Our bodies change daily. Look in the mirror and you’ll notice tiny differences you didn’t see yesterday. However, Scripture tells us that we’ll have a new body. ‘For we know that when this tent we live in - our body here on earth - is torn down, God will have a house in heaven for us to live in, a home he himself has made, which will last forever’ (2 Corinthians 5:1). We, who believe in Jesus, can be certain that after our life on this ever changing earth ends, we shall spend eternity dwelling with Him in the place He’s prepared for us (2 Corinthians 5:8).

It’s so reassuring that our Lord and His Word never changes. ‘For I, the LORD, do not change’ (Malachi 3:6). He is God the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. He is the same in the Old Testament, the New Testament and indeed today. He is the same God who breathed life into Adam, who parted the Red Sea and flung the stars into space at creation. He’s the same God who calls you and me today to acknowledge Him as our Heavenly Father.

Because He is the same He’s able to guide and help you, just as He did in Bible times. We read testimony after testimony, revealing God’s amazing power to still heal and change lives today.

Unlike toothpaste which evolved over centuries from tooth powder, used by the ancient Egyptians, to what it offers today, to protect against gum disease and sensitivity, to whiten and strengthen teeth, we can be certain that God's Word never changes. It will never evolve into something different, or its power run out. ‘In the beginning was the Word and the Word was God’ (John 1:1). ‘Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever’ (Hebrews 13:8). He is the Alpha and Omega, all powerful eternal God.

Prayer: Father, we’re so grateful that You never change. Please guard us in this ever-changing world and help us to remember the truth of your Gospel. Help our confidence in You to grow, as we read the truth of Your Word - the words of eternal life. When we call to You, we can be sure You’ll always be there to listen to our heart’s cry, yesterday, today and forever. Amen.