Over the past year there have been a few of them. Septennium. Ambivalence. And a few days ago, Vicissitude.
We rarely use the word anymore. If we do, we usually mean little more than "change." But our ancestors packed much more into it than that.
Vicissitude comes from the Latin vicis—a turn, an exchange, one's lot, a succession. It describes life not as a straight line but as a series of turns. High places and low places. Beginnings and endings. Gain and loss. Health and sickness. Youth and old age. We are not simply changing; we are continually passing from one condition to another.
When we are young, we tend to imagine life as a direct route toward our destination. We picture ourselves setting out with a clear goal and arriving there by determination and hard work. We expect progress to be linear.
The Scriptures certainly don't describe life that way.
Abraham leaves home with no map beyond God's promise. Joseph reaches leadership only after passing through betrayal, slavery, and prison. David is anointed king long before he wears the crown. Paul plants churches while spending years in prison.
And Israel's journey may be the greatest illustration of all. A trip that could have taken weeks became forty years in the wilderness. We often think of those decades as a delay. Deuteronomy tells a different story. The wilderness was not a detour around God's plan. It was God's plan.
We tend to think providence is a straight road interrupted by unexpected events. The Bible presents providence as the sovereign hand of God working through the unexpected events.And that is a profound difference.
The older I become, the less my own life resembles the neat timeline I imagined when I was twenty. Careers changed. Opportunities appeared and disappeared. Some prayers were answered quickly; others took years. Children grew up. My parents passed away. Friends came into my life and some departed it. Every season carried gifts I could not have predicted and losses I could not have prevented.
Looking backward, however, something surprising happens. What once looked like random turns begins to resemble a path.
Never a straight one- but a faithful one.
This is where the Christian doctrine of God's immutability becomes so breathtaking.
Everything in my experience changes- Even my understanding of God deepens with time.
But God Himself does not.
"I the LORD do not change." (Malachi 3:6)
The One who calls me through every changing season never experiences a season Himself. He does not become wiser, stronger, kinder, or more faithful. He has never had a better day or a worse one. His character never fluctuates. His purposes never require revision.
Long ago, I heard the late Dan Dehaan say it "When things change, they either get better or worse- God can't get better, and He certainly would not choose to get worse"
The Biblical life is a path rather than a destination. No one stands at the trailhead able to describe every mile ahead. We simply take the next faithful step.
I wonder if our greatest mistake is expecting life to be free from vicissitude.
Maybe the real invitation is learning to recognize the immutable God within it.
After all, if the path never climbed, we would never discover the view from the summit. If it never descended, we would never learn that valleys have their own beauty. If it never turned, we might begin to trust the map more than the Guide.
The older words often teach us what the newer ones forget.
Vicissitude reminds us that change is not an interruption of life. It is the ordinary condition of a beautiful, adventurous life in a fallen world and above every turning path stands the God who does not turn.
And because He does not change, we need not fear every change that comes to us. Because God never changes- His promises also do not change- for eternity. The Guide never loses His way.
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