Threat or Blessing

We have now been in Indiana for one year. It still feels new to us to live here. Our home and neighborhood are new to us. Having a grandchild with cancer was new. People here are new to us. Rules and laws here are new. Our church here is new to us. There is a lot of new for us. Usually I love new things (I am not a rut or routine person) but, sometimes, new is a threat. It’s trying to move in and take over. Maybe I want the old back because it is easy, familiar and comfortable. At times, I want the old back. I want my healthy grandchild back. I want my old friends back. I want to attend my old church.

I’m then reminded that just because God wants to give us something new, or make changes, doesn’t mean we need to give up the past. I can hang onto the past but move it with me to a different place. I can hold onto the old in one hand and keep the other hand empty for when God wants to bring new to change things.

New is not a threat but it is change. At the Red Sea, the Israelites saw the water as a threat. God split the waters and made a way through. “The Lord caused the sea to go back and made the sea into dry land and the waters were divided.” Ex. 14:21 The water changed and did a new thing. The water started as a threat to the Israelites but became a blessing to them when it washed away the Egyptians. Seeing it split was something new. Later, God made a way through the wilderness by giving them water. The dryness was a threat. “You shall strike the rock, and water will come out of it, that the people my drink.” Ex. 17:6 Seeing water in the desert was new. Last time God was with them, they didn’t need water. Water was a threat. This time they needed water. Water was now a blessing. What used to be a “threat” was now their blessing.

Are you standing in front of something you’ve never seen before – something”new”? Do you expect everything to look like what you’ve already been through, seen or done? Do you expect God to do things the same way this time as He did last time?? Sometimes the greatest threat to new things is that God‘s not doing what He did the way He did it before. God says, “I’m still speaking; I’m just telling you something NEW.”

There’s a balance. We hold onto the past in one hand and keep the other open to accept change and new. Hold onto the old while leaving room for the new. Don’t expect it to be a threat; but expect a change and blessing!