Some Things Don't Change

Author: Mark Fenstermacher
October 08, 2021

I’m a fresh air kind of guy. Whether that means driving my small, very old sports car with the top down or having the windows open at home, I’m a fresh air kind of guy.

With the windows open, I can hear the voices of the children at nearby J.R. Watson Elementary as they play at recess. You don’t hear one voice, of course, but you hear this symphony of small voices coming across the green fields between my house and the school. There are shouts. There is laughter. 

Closing your eyes, listening to the music of the children’s voices, you may smile and realize that this is what it has always sounded like on playgrounds. This is what it sounds like this week in Auburn and Fort Wayne and Garrett, and this is what it sounded like twenty-five or seventy-five years ago.

It never changes.

I smiled when I realized that this sound never changes: it is always new.

In a season when it may seem like everything is always changing (did you see that the Chicago Bears are considering leaving the lakefront and relocating to a field in the far northwest suburbs?), it may be helpful to remember that some things don’t change.

People still need love: that doesn’t change.

Truth matters: that doesn’t change.

Forgiveness is necessary if life is to go forward: that doesn’t change.

And there is this: God’s love doesn’t change.

Scripture reminds us that the steadfast love of the LORD is from everlasting to everlasting (Psalm 103) and God’s mercies are new every morning (Lamentations 3:22).

I thought maybe you needed to hear, this week, that some things don’t change: God’s love for the world (John 3:16) is a constant.

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Thank you to those of you who have prayed for our family and expressed your condolences as we celebrate the life of our 94-year old father, Dr. Robert (Bob) Fenstermacher. Our Dad grew up in Upland, Indiana, ended up serving as a medical missionary in Africa and Alaska, and then later was in private practice as well as directing a residency program in South Bend. Our Mom, Anita, passed on in 2000. I am the oldest of seven children, and five of us (Heidi, Edwin, David, Elizabeth and I) survive.

Visitation will be next Friday (15th) at the Palmer/Guisinger Chapel on South Michigan in South Bend, and the celebration service for his life will be on Saturday at 11 a.m. at South Bend Grace United Methodist Church (Twyckenham Drive) with visitation one hour prior to the service. In lieu of flowers, we are asking that people make a gift to South Bend UMC.

Thank you, again, for your kindness, prayers and grace.

I’m glad to know that some thighs don’t change.

Grace and peace,
Pastor Mark

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