New

We all have Scriptures that we go back to or that keep being brought back to us. Every season of life brings new or different meaning to those Scriptures. How I read about the Lord's goodness now is vastly different from when I pondered that as a twenty year old. Or forgiving my sister for ruining one of my favorite tops in high school hearkens to a simpler level of walking through forgiveness than when my fiancé called off our wedding 4 days before the ceremony.

I find as a parent of three young girls, married for almost eight years and living far far away from family, when I read scripture I am aware of my need for encouragement and hope while being able to acknowledge how much I fall short and require grace.

When John writes in Revelation 21:5, "Behold, I make all things new", he is speaking specifically of the new world: our new bodies, our renewed relationship with God upon the Second Coming. I am not trying to be sacrilegious when I find this Scripture applicable to me today, in this moment with my kids, in this fight with my husband, in the loneliness of COVID quarantine.

Yes, I look forward to the day when my knee doesn't bother me or when I am no longer tired and need a cat-nap, when my body is renewed, better, perfected.  I look forward to the day when the earth isn't groaning from decay, pollution, and abuse but fully alive.  I look forward to the day when my relationship with God isn't tainted with my religious baggage and overt selfishness but it will be pure, whole, transformed.
 
I also need to hear and know and experience that Jesus is making all things new in my here-and-now: my desire for control is being replaced with holding all things loosely; my desire to be right and "win" is being replaced with a humble heart; my desire to have what I want, when I want it is being replaced with generosity. My kids, with their new perspectives, are teaching me this world can become better, filled with reconciliation and restoration where justice does triumph.

I need to know and experience and hold on to the fact that God isn't just going to make things new someday, but that He is in the business of making new every moment, every day.

He who was seated on the throne said, “I am making everything new!” Then he said, “Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true.”  Revelation 21:5 (NIV)