Something old, something new

I have been helping one of our daughters as she attempts to do something new with something old.  We are cleaning closets and rearranging furniture in her home.  And so, while the square footage of her residence stays the same, the interior space is already looking and living differently.

More room was created for the children to play, just by moving a bed.  A new sitting area in her bedroom was made by adding a chair.  Her closet is a work in progress, being transformed by passing on what she no longer wears and reorganizing what she does need.  And there were some little delights in finding what she did not know she had, like discovering at the bottom of a drawer a well-loved sweater that has a lot of adventures attached to it.

At the end of the day, we stood amazed at how differently the same space looked and worked.

Particularly in the new year, we too often think of change as the coming of something new and extraordinary, when indeed we just need to be willing to follow God here.

"Follow Me" may mean moving to a different place, but sometimes "follow Me" means staying and being faithful to God right where you are.  God is doing something new right here that might not have anything to do with my circumstances, but in my heart.

God bears fruit in unexpected places.

All the direction I need for this day (or new year) is "Follow Me into it," even when I have no idea where He is going with this.

His purposes are deeper than we can see, not just sometimes, but always.

The new in this new year
     may just be my heart.

Direct our hearts, O LORD, our minds, our attentions, our affections, our actions, for Your purposes.  Keep us from those things which are not from You, those things that have taken up residence in our hearts that only serve to trip us up, distract us, and crowd You out.  Even on this cold ordinary January day, because You are in it, this day is extraordinary, full maybe not of surprises but of Your abiding Presence. You take our circumstances and orchestrate them into something new.

Help us not to miss it, O LORD.

...and called its name Rehoboth, saying,
"For now the LORD has made room for us,
and we shall be fruitful in the land."

                         Genesis 26. 22

And at the end of the day,
     or the end of the year,
we can stand amazed
not at what we have done,
   but how God has transformed our hearts
           from the inside out.

Follow Me into it.