New life wraps its bright green arms around me.

Proclaim the greatness of the LORD our God and worship him upon his holy hill; for the LORD our God is the Holy One. Psalm 99:9

But you, O LORD my God, Oh, deal with me according to your Name; for your tender mercy’s sake, deliver me. For I am poor and needy, and my heart is wounded within me. Psalm 109:20–21

I waited patiently upon the LORD; He stooped to me and heard my cry. He lifted me out of the desolate pit, out of the mire and the clay; He set my feet upon a high cliff and made my footing sure. He put a new song in my mouth, a song of praise to our God; many shall see, and stand in awe. And put their trust in the LORD. Psalm 40:1–3

We must learn to live each day, each hour, yes, each minute as a new beginning, as a unique opportunity to make everything new. Imagine that we could live each moment as a moment pregnant with new life. Imagine that we could live each day as a day full of promise. Imagine that we could walk through the new year always listening to the Voice sayin  to us, “I have a gift for you and I can’t wait for you to see it!”

The problem is that we allow the past, which becomes longer and longer each year, to say to us, “You know it all; you have seen it all, be realistic; the future will be just another repeat of the past. Try to survive it as best you can.” There are many cunning foxes jumping on our shoulders and whispering in our ears the great lie, “He is not big enough.”

So what are we to do? First, we must send the foxes back to where they belong in their foxholes. And then we must open our minds and our heart to the Voice that resounds through the valleys and hills of our life saying, “Let me show you where I live among my people. My name is “God-with-you.”

We must choose to listen to that Voice, and every choice will open us a little more to discover the new life hidden in the moment, waiting eagerly to be born. Henri Nouwen, Here and Now

God with me.  That is one of His names.

And it is easy to believe pedaling down backroads in Vermont. Life.

Here. Now. Speaking life out of emptiness. And of course I love the mighty beauty of Aslan’s song in The Magician’s Nephew.

“A voice had begun to sing. It was very far away and Digory found it hard to decide from what direction it was coming. Sometimes it seemed to come from all directions at once. Sometimes he almost thought it was coming out of the earth beneath them. Its lower notes were deep enough to be the voice of the earth herself. There were no words. It was hardly a tune. But it was beyond comparison, the most beautiful sound he had ever heard.”