In March of 2007, the United States Postal Service did what I consider to be one of the greatest things they’ve ever done: they created the Forever Stamp. The idea behind the stamp was simple yet sublime—create a stamp that could always be used to mail a letter regardless of how many times the postal rates change. Now this is important because if you have lived on this earth any length of time, you know the postal rates are always changing.
For example, if you were born in 2000, you probably haven’t mailed a lot of letters yet, but the postage rate on those cute little cards your grandmother sends you has increased five times since you came into the world. Don’t you think your grandmother has better things to do than try to keep up with the price of stamps? If you were born ten years before that, in 1990, then there have already been eight changes in the price of postage. I think I speak for most of the world when I say that we would rather you focus on graduating high school this spring than worrying about keeping up with the current cost of mailing a letter. If you’ve reached the half-century mark in life, then the price has changed eighteen times. You’re almost better off trying to keep up with the price of gas. Almost.
To have a stamp you purchase at the current price and know that whenever you use it, it will be all you need to send a letter is wonderful. It means you can forget about trying to remember what the current postage rate is. It also means you don’t have to worry about scraping together enough one cent stamps to add to your old stamp the next time the price goes up. The Forever Stamp, the one with the Liberty Bell on it, that’s all you need!
Isn’t it good to know that our Father is a forever God? The Hebrew songbook (Psalms), speaks of:
- Him reigning forever (9:7),
- His plans standing firm forever (33:11),
- Him being exalted forever (92:8),
- His love enduring forever (100:5, 136),
- Him remembering His covenant forever (105:8),
- His righteousness enduring forever (111:3),
- His faithfulness enduring forever (117:2),
- His statutes being forever right (119:144),
- Him surrounding His people now and forevermore (125:2),
- His name enduring forever (135:13),
In the ever-changing world we live in, a Forever Stamp is nice, but we need more. The truth is, we need as much forever as we can get our hands on. The good news is that we get all we need in God. When you know the One who is timeless, there’s no need to be seduced by the sparkle of the transitory or pulled by the tug of the temporary. When you’ve seen Jesus model the essential, there’s no longer a need to pursue the trivial. Being a disciple of Jesus means that although the world around us is constantly shifting, we stand on forever solid ground.
“I will praise You forever for what You have done,” (Psalm 59:9).
A Taste of Grace with Bruce Green 