I finished writing out my Christmas cards today. I penned the addresses, while my daughter licked them shut and plastered on the holiday-themed stamps. We worked silently, side-by-side, on our long, two-person desk looking out into our back patio. We worked in our jammies, with the windows cracked, enjoying a sixty degree breeze. A pleasant way to spend the morning.

It wasn’t long before I realized something: so many people moved this year. After years of sameness, there were so many entries I crossed out of my address book, so many people I had to message on Facebook or text to get their new addresses. It was a year of change, of movement.

For our family it was, too. Although we have lived here in Miami for more than two years, my life looks a lot different this year. Both my kids are in school, I’m a working woman, and we live in a new house. Subtle things have changed, too, like the way we spend our weekends, the people I see during the course of the week, the way our evenings flash by in a routine of homework and supper and bedtime.

When I was young, I thought that life got pretty boring after you got married and had a few kids. The thing I’ve learned, however, is that life is rarely boring. It is full of change, ever moving. As we approach the holidays, those Christmas cards start trickling in from all over the country, bringing with them evidence of change: cousins are getting married, college friends are on child number 3 or 4, and we all look…older.

The constant in our lives is change. Some days it makes me feel slightly panicked, some days nostalgic. I’m so happy God is the same every day that I wake up. Every day his love is the same. Every night, his forgiveness is waiting. Every hard time, every good time, he is listening and guiding and working through it all. I always know where to find him, because he is always there. He never up and moves on me, never makes me track down his new address.

And every year, His holiday card is the same: Jesus, for me, for you, forever.