A New Thing

​"I am about to do a new thing. Now it springs forth. Do you not perceive it? I will make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert."                            Isaiah 43:19

God spoke through Isaiah to encourage the Jewish people, dashed across the known world, and held captive in Babylon. God was reaffirming the reality that God is always present, always active, always there. The Children of Israel had gotten themselves into their own distress by ignoring, even disbelieving, this very truth: God is with us. Through the long, hard years of exile, God must have seemed far away uncaring. Those held captive wanted one thing more than any other: to be set free. They could not embrace the reality that they already were.

The Word of God spoke to the Israelites imploring them to be aware of God’s presence in every minute of their lives. More than not, though, they thought this meant looking forward to the fulfillment of prophesy, the coming of the Messiah. Taking this passage, not as a foretelling of a future event, but as a present illumination, we understand that God is speaking to us as well.

"I am about to do a new thing. Now it springs forth. Do you not perceive it?”
 
God is always in the business of starting over. In this verse, God tells his people that after their release from Babylonian captivity, He would do a “new thing.” In Hebrew the word for “new thing” is chadash. It refers to something that has never happened before or something that has not existed before.
 
Every moment is a Chadash--every heartbeat, breath, and sensation.
When God was incarnate and became man, he not only paid the price for our sins but paved the Way for the Holy Spirit to dwell with us always. That same Spirit is moving through our lives doing Chadash all the time: “Do you not perceive it?” This is the call of God through time, to see and know in the minute the gifts we have been given and the instruction we are receiving through the Holy Spirit.
 
Our captivity, as the children of Israel, is our false belief that we receive the world and all that is in it in the same way all the time. We think this way because we feel the same about the events of our lives. The same night routine, the same coffee taste, the same response from the one we love, always the same. But God is not limited to how we feel; in fact, God is present to break us out of this delusion and set us on the Way to spiritual awareness and true joy.
 
The desert we trod is the perceptions we have created or embraced. Our desert is the “same old thing” and Jesus waiting for us when we pray. God has told us that the Holy Spirit will make our deserts bountiful, green, flowing with the river of life, all we need do is expand our perception. Jesus said, “those who eyes to see and ears to hear” will understand these things, he was simply saying that those who are willing to submit to that which is greater than themselves will receive it.
 
“Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past.” Isaiah 43:18
 
Letting go of our feelings about what has been and opening up our minds to who is with us, we will see and we will hear. The Holy Spirit, as the Word proclaims through Isaiah, I am doing a new thing, the new things God declares are nothing less than the restoration of our spirit and soul.
 
  I am with you always, even unto the end of the world.
(Matthew 28:20b)
 
Jesus is with us, and we need to look and listen—always.
 
 
 O God of the cradle and of the cross,
Grant that during Christmas this year, we may have something more to show for our running about than tired feet, unwrapped presents and regrets for cards not sent. Help us to know that in Immanuel, you are always with us. Help us to be aware that if we look for you we will surely find you – but often in unexpected places and in unexpected people. And above all, help us to finish the Christmas story again this year by bowing before the cradle and worshipping beneath the cross of Jesus. In his wondrous and Holy name we pray. Amen.
 
Merry Christmas,
Fr. Bill+