Isaiah 43:19 says, “See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up, do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the wilderness and streams in the wasteland.”
At the beginning of each year, we all like to create the opportunity to do a new thing. We look at what we’ve done, where we’ve been, and we try to see what we should hold on to, and what we should give up. After all, we want the coming year to be better than the last. It’s not easy though, because the world is complicated and unexpected things happen to all of us. Sometimes those things throw us off course, and so we start looking for answers to solve our issues. A hymn writer named Frances Ridley Havergal wrote, “In perplexities, when we cannot tell what to do, when we cannot understand what is going on around us, let us be calmed and steadied and made patient by the thought that what is hidden from us is not hidden from God.”
We like to be equipped with the answers, able to see around corners, ready to take on the storms of life without fear. We do our best to stay ahead of the game so we can weather anything that comes along. The problem is that we’re not in control. We’re not alone in the everyday happenings of our lives. We are walking arm in arm with the only One who is never surprised about what happens to us and who has all the answers. All we have to do is seek Him and look for the clues He posts everywhere to help us move through life. He wants to know that we are trying to perceive the good things He’s doing so that we can appreciate them more fully. In fact, He is always doing a new thing in our lives because we change, and we get in trouble, and we doubt and wander off. Even so, He doesn’t lose sight of us, or get tired of picking us up and dusting us off. He just asks us to keep looking for Him because He will do a new thing to make a way where there was no way before.
As you start the New Year then, perhaps you can give up your need for the answers. At this point, you don’t even know the most important questions. Simply remember that God has gone before you, preparing the way for your good, making a way for you to follow Him each day. The one who can make streams in the deserts, can surely bring refreshment and nourishment to our parched souls. May your heart be filled with calm assurance as we begin another new year.
Blessings and joy to each of you in 2023, my friends!