Day 19 Something Different

Day 19 Something Different

19 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

For four hundred years no prophecy came to forth. The earth turned and moved around the sun. Summer followed Spring which followed Winter which came after fall. Children were born, grew up, married, had their own children, saw their grandchildren, and then followed their parents into the grave. Kingdoms rose up and then fell, replaced by some new kingdom. Nothing changed. Sin still reigned in the hearts of men and women. God’s chosen people languished under the lash of foreign rulers. Darkness seemed so powerful. But something, someone was coming.

God was doing something different; so different that almost no one noticed when it happened. A few shepherds late at night, a young girl and a carpenter with a problematic pregnancy, an old couple enjoying a late-life surprise, and some wandering star-gazers formed the list of those that noticed. The radical, world-changing force came in the guise of a squalling infant. And, he came to some transients who would soon become refugees, fleeing political persecution. None of this would normally herald greatness. This beginning is so humdrum and normal that it does not merit notice. Yet, this is how God changes everything. It is new and fresh, water in the wasteland.

So, this Christmas, as I consider the incarnation, what wastelands in my heart need a touch of His water, His radical change? What areas in my walk have I let grow dry and fallow? He still wants to do a new thing in me. He’s unwilling to let things remain the same. Of course, I must be willing to make room for Him and have the faith to let Him do His strange and marvelous work, His radical life-altering work.