A new thing
“Behold, I will do a new thing; now it shall spring forth; shall ye not know it? I will even make a way in the wilderness, and rivers in the desert.”Isaiah 43:19
Reflection
Just before this verse, God makes an unusual request of the people: "Remember ye not the former things, neither consider the things of old". This comes from a God who had just recalled the Exodus, the opened sea, the defeated armies. But He warns: now, do not stay stuck in the past, because I have something different. And then comes the sentence: "Behold, I will do a new thing; now it shall spring forth; shall ye not know it?". God is a God who keeps creating, and often the greatest obstacle to seeing the new is staring fixedly at the old.
Notice the question: "shall ye not know it?". God's new thing can pass unnoticed, because it comes in unexpected clothing. It may be a door that opens in an unlikely place, a person who appears, an idea that is born, a slow healing. Someone attached to the way God acted before may walk past what He is doing now. The invitation is to attention: "now it shall spring forth". It is not a distant future, it is something already beginning to sprout in the present, like a plant breaking through the soil.
And the image of the promise is lovely: "I will even make a way in the wilderness, and rivers in the desert". God specializes precisely in places where no one sees possibility. A wilderness has no way; He opens one. A desert has no rivers; He makes them flow. Perhaps your life is in a wilderness right now: a dry marriage, a stalled career, a fragile health, a weary faith. The promise is that the God who does a new thing can create a road where there seemed to be nothing and a spring where there was only dust.
What do you need to let go of from the past in order to see the new? A failure that became identity, a disappointment that became bitterness, an old glory that became nostalgia? Hand it over and ask: "Lord, open my eyes to recognize what You are doing now". Then look carefully around you. There are signs that something is sprouting. God has not finished with you. He keeps creating, and the best may still be about to spring forth.
Prayer
Lord, thank You that You have not finished with me and that You keep doing new things. Help me let go of what lies behind, whether failure or former glory, and open my eyes to recognize what You are doing now. Make a way in my wilderness and rivers in my dry land. Amen.
Put it into practice
Write down one thing from the past (a pain, a mistake or an old achievement) that you need to let go of and hand it over in prayer. Then, during the day, consciously look for one "sign of the new" that God may be doing in your life and give thanks for it.
To reflect on
What from the past has taken up so much of your gaze that it keeps you from recognizing the new thing God is doing today?
Bible text: King James Version (public domain).