‘Plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose.’ So say the French – more elegantly than our ‘The more it changes, the more it’s the same thing.’
A fountain is the obvious subject. The water is ever-changing but the picture remains constant. A cosmetic transformation may take place but the continuing identity trumps the transformation.
Conversion is part of most religious terminology. The Greek word behind the English translation is ‘turn’. Just as a growing plant turns to face the sun, so a believer turns to face the Gospel. Akin to repentance, conversion is a revision of an individual’s outlook. The Old Testament equivalent is ‘come back’. No work of grace is suggested; that is left to the word ‘ ‘regenerate’ or the phrase about being ‘born again’.
Christians do not have a monopoly of the word ‘conversion’. It may simply be used ot a shift in opinion. It is possible, I suppose, for a Man United fan to switch his or her support to City.
There are othe, deeper aspects. Peter the apostle is recognisably the Peter who responded to Jesus’ call. His mother would have recognised the continuity. So would his fishermen friends. Conversion does not change the reckless, responsive man into a diffident slowcoach. Nor does it change a timid risk-avoider into a ‘Leap before you look’ member of the team.
People make prophecies about newborn babies. And why not? Quite probably the infant will have something of his father about him. – and his mother too. It is good to grow up profiting from the religious example of parents. It is good as well to make the break. Kingsley Martin said that his father knew when to give ground to a son seeking independence. He could never quarrel with him. Sometimes we owe more than we think to our parents.
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