a new thing?

I read and re-read the scripture in Isaiah where God says He is doing a new thing.  I want to be a part of that new thing, as the rivers rush through the dry and parched land, bringing new life.   Twentieth century theologian/philosopher Paul Tillich speaks of this in his 1955 book, The Shaking of the Foundations.  “Let us meditate on the old and the new, in ourselves and in our world. In these Biblical texts the new contrasted with the old: the old is rejected and there is stated, in passionate words, expectation of the new. Even the [Ecclesiastes] Preacher, who denies the possibility of anything really new on earth, does not hide his longing for the new, and his disappointment in not being able to find it.”

God says to forget the former things.   This is not talking about the great old things we need to remember like the Ancient of Days, the history of man and nations, and the blessings and miracles He has lavished on His creation from the beginning.    These old,  former things to forget are the ones that die anyway – Remember the quote, “We can never go back.”  How many of us have experienced that one as we visited old places from our past?  And, in this life,  I cannot go back to the good ole days and become a young person again.  We cannot create  that new that our hearts yearn for by taking remaining pieces of the old and rearranging it all, like taking old, brittle, dried up play dough and pressing it together to make a new bowl.

“The new is created not out of the old, not out of the best of the old, but out of the death of the old. It is not the old which creates the new. That which creates the new is that which is beyond old and beyond new, the Eternal.”

The prophet asks, “Do you not percieve it?” – this new thing.  Maybe it’s not easy to see at first, like the roots that grow under the ground, like the baby that grows in the womb – but that new life is there!  God give us faith to see.