That’s why we can be so sure that every detail in our lives of love for God is worked into something good. Romans 8:28 (MSG)
Every Detail – The New Thing Series – Part 4
Go to PART 1 | PART 2 | PART 3 | PART 4 | PART 5 | PART 6
Whenever you see the word “new” written in the scriptures, it doesn’t mean “new” as in never seen before, it means “made new;” to rebuild, restore, and renew. Fresh. Transformation.
Isaiah prophesied that out of deserts and wilderness God would bring roads and rivers.
One of the reasons I think we are addicted to consumption is that we love the idea of owning something brand new. How often do we think, “I’ll just buy a new one” instead of fixing, cleaning, or rebuilding an old one? A few months ago, my mum went to a garage sale and bought around $1000 dollars worth of Lego for $60. It included ten sets, with all the pieces and instructions intact. It was to good to leave behind. It took us both some thinking and convincing that we could use the second-hand Lego as gifts for my son. Shouldn’t we be giving him NEW Lego as a gift? We can’t give him something that's been used, can we?
But you know what? We can. And we did. And the reaction he gave when he received the used Lego was exactly the same as when he received the brand new stuff. (except for when he got the Lego Millennium Falcon… he may have cried tears of joy over that one…).
We smirk at the idea of re-gifting, but I don’t think we should. Isn’t it just redeeming an item's value and use? (as long as it is actually valuable and useful). We are obsessed with getting new things. New clothes, new cars, new items, new gadgets… and don’t worry… I upgrade my iPhone to the latest one even when my phone still works perfectly because I just want the new one.
Subconsciously, beneath the surface, I have a hunch that this reflects our deep and hidden need for newness in our hearts and lives. And we think that clean slates and blank pages and unused plastic and the previously untouched and unused are our keys to finding newness.
But the Divine can transform your desert and your wasteland into roads and rivers. He makes things new. MAKES: rebuilds, heals, strengthens, transforms, restores… new.
Another word that describes the meaning of ‘Chadash’ (NEW in Hebrew – see yesterday's post), is:
fresh.
Fresh isn’t a clean slate. It’s a restoration/return to health and wholeness.
Sometimes (all the time), our greatest transformations come from our greatest seasons of pain. Pain, it seems, is a conduit to renewal. Why? I don’t know. But it's why after all these years I can still see that God takes broken things and restores them. He heals unhealable things; take us through dead-end circumstances and situations and leads us somewhere good. Why?
Because, deserts into roads. Wilderness into rivers. He wastes nothing if we let him.
Sometimes (all the time) the ‘new' we are looking for springs up from the middle of the muck and the mess and the broken and the beauty of our lived in, old, used up lives.
“That’s why we can be so sure that every detail in our lives of love for God is worked into something good.” (Rom 8:28 MSG).
I think it's the greatest grace and the greatest hope that we can be alive too. ‘(Re)new(ed)' in the midst of even this.
Go to Part 5 – Crown of Beauty »
Written by Lizzy Milani
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