Do not remember the former things nor consider the things of old. Behold, I will do a new thing. Now it shall spring forth; Shall you not know it? I will even make a road in the wilderness and rivers in the desert. Isaiah 43: 18-19
This morning as I sat on the couch drinking coffee to stimulate the humdrum cells in my body, a higgledy-piggledy world flashed over the tv screen. Towering flames hiccupped through California forests, politicians prittle-prattled, newscasters tittle-tattled, movie stars mingle-mangled, and rioters hocus-pocused.
Living in a mundane world while a smorgasboard of earth-shattering events happening so frequently and continuously as to dull our senses makes us long for those meaningful gatherings and interactions with friends and family or for anything that would fill the empty spaces in our lives.
Yet a desert can be a good place to be. Oh, the possibilities in a desert. What a multitude of ways out. Look around. Sand is everywhere, the breeze stirring a few grains of sand here and there. Which direction do you go? When the confusion ends, the path ahead promises adventures to be faced. Perhaps you will meet the Lone Ranger and Tonto or a Sheikh of Arabia. Perhaps you will wind through layered rock formations, steep canyons, and towering spires; see bison, bighorn sheep and prairie dogs; walk past scenic lookouts and uncover dinosaur fossils.
Sometimes you long for the old path, the life that was. Then you remember the words of God to Isaiah: “Do not remember the former things nor consider the things of old. Behold, I will do a new thing, Now it shall spring forth; Shall you not know it? I will even make a road in the wilderness and rivers in the desert.”
The old must give way to the new just as law gave way to grace, Moses and the prophets to Jesus and the Holy Spirit. We may not know the path ahead, but flowers grow along the rivers in the desert and their waters nourish the body. Likewise, God promises to give what is necessary for spiritual progress and richness of soul.
T. Stephenson writes,
The pathless wilderness of the future is before us — no foot has trodden it, — it is beset by unknown difficulties and unseen perils; but even their God will make a way, a road upon which His people shall travel in security and with unerring certainty to their appointed destination. And although the heat of the sun may beat fiercely down upon that path, drying up every particle of moisture and consuming all pleasant vegetation, so that it may seem most unlikely that life can be sustained in the journey across such an arid waste, God can and will provide all that is needed; and rivers of water, an abundant and continuous supply, shall be found there.
Oooooh, the possibilities!!!
