After a whirlwind few weeks we have found ourselves living in a world where terms like “social distancing” and “shelter in place” are common parlance. We live in a world so different from the way it was just a few short weeks ago that we question whether anything is the same. When we do see things that are completely unchanged, such as the relentless approach of spring, the song of a Robin, or the bloom of a flower, they strike us as almost odd or discordant. Our world seems frozen in place, so it is strange to see spring move on. As we feel gloomy and downtrodden, it is odd that crocuses and daffodils are as beautiful as they ever were.We live in a time when it seems like everything is changing, when history is being made, a time of upheaval; and we are not particularly enjoying it. As Tolkein reminds us in The Fellowship of the Ring:

“I wish it need not have happened in my time,” said Frodo.
“So do I,” said Gandalf, “and so do all who live to see such times. But that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us.”

Scary as these times are, they are historically the times when the Christian church is strengthened. There are many reasons for this, but one is that tumultuous times cause us to be hyper-aware of the mutability (or changeability) of things we formerly thought immutable and direct our attention to the truly eternal, unchangeable, immutable things. That is what a WCA education is all about. Our desire is to direct our students’ attention to the eternal things. We desire to be constantly directing our students to love God and the Truth, Goodness, and Beauty that we see in the light of Him.

Have you ever noted that one of the primary reasons for praising God in the Psalms and throughout the Old Testament is that God does not change? Remember the refrain of Psalm 136? “His love endures forever”? God does not change, though all the world around us does. David praised Him for this, so did Moses, Jesus, the apostle Paul, and so has the church throughout the ages. As God does not change neither do the things we see only in light of Him: Truth, Goodness, and Beauty. Truth is still true, goodness is still good, and flowers are still beautiful. That is why our educational endeavor at WCA is more important now than ever, we all are badly in need of a vision of the eternal things.

I will conclude with the words of the Apostle Paul as he points his students to the eternal things:

Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things. Philippians 4:8 (ESV)