New Thing

Behold, I am doing 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
 
          We really have been patient; it has been a long time since we have done the things we used to do. To just be normal again, that would be amazing! When we went into the COVID-19 lock down, I, like many I think, associated the deprivation with past experiences I have had. When I was in Africa with no running water, I “endured” it because I knew that soon I would be home with a fully functional kitchen sink. In the Philippines, I dealt with the heat (well over 100 degrees) in part, by reminding myself that I would only be there for a while. No matter what or where I was, the “go to” security was the knowledge that things would change back to the way they were before.

          What I didn’t anticipate was the change that was taking place in me. I remember standing at the kitchen sink when I got back home, staring at the faucet, listening to the water, feeling the cool, smooth flow. I remember entering a building and being hit by the cold, perfectly air-conditioned air, it was literally shocking and drew me up short. Running water and cool air were, in a way, a new thing to me, and truly amazing! In both cases, I lived through the experience but never fully recovered—thank God.

          God was doing New Things in me. It is amazing how much God loves us, truly loves us, and how God gives us opportunities to encounter the world, life, love, and his grace with new eyes and hearts and minds. It not just living through a bad thing or an inconvenient thing, its living into a new thing.

          Some of us went to Shrine Mont this past weekend. Though it was wonderful to be on the mountain and to be (somewhat) a family, it was not the same. We didn’t experience it in the same way, we couldn’t/didn’t do the same things. There were things we missed and things were left out, but there were new things! In a different way—a new way—it was wonderful! More than this though, I know the experience will stay with us and open for us new vision.

          When the COVID-19 lock down ends, we will have the options we once had. Life could return to “normal,” or at least a close approximation, but not really. We are not the same; we have had an experience that has changed us. No matter how we experienced it or describe these times, it won’t be that, that description in which we live; it will be a New Thing. In fact, every day is a New Thing through the amazing love of God!
 
Behold, I am doing 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