I know that everything God does will endure forever; nothing can be added to it and nothing taken from it. God does it so that people will fear him. Whatever is has already been, and what will be has been before; and God will call the past to account.

Ecclesiastes 3:14-15

Much about life is cyclical, isn’t it? In most places we get to experience the variety of seasons and we generally know what to expect during Winter, Spring, Summer and Fall.

But the seasons of life are much more than arbitrary dates on the calendar.Most of us have a few decades of life experience at this point and no doubt you can relate to the passage above. The circumstances of life tend to repeat from one generation to the next. Just last week I spoke with a younger man who is watching the marriage of some life long friends crumble before his eyes. It reminded me of similar situations I saw among some friends some twenty years ago or so.

The scenarios repeat because sin persists in the heart of human beings like us. What has been will be repeated. Gospel singer Larry Norman once paraphrased the sentiments of these passages from Ecclesiastes in his 1969 song – Nothing Really Changes.

"Would Henry VIII use etiquette 
In a busy New York luncheonette 
would Cleopatra die when when bit 
or save herself with a tourniquet 
would Beethoven join a jazz quartet 
would Ben Hur drive a blue corvette 
would Aristotle be an acid head 
would Cain kill Abel with a bayonet

Nothing really changes
everything remains the same
we are what we are till the day that we die
(unless we love the lord)
nothing really changes
everything remains the same
we are what we are till the day that we die"

Nothing really changes, unless we love the LORD.