Former things.

June 20, 2018

Remember ye not the former things, neither consider the things of old. Behold, I will do a new thing; now it shall spring forth; shall ye not know it? I will even make a way in the wilderness, and rivers in the desert. Isaiah 43:18-19

The former things haunt the present. As we eat our chicken shawarma sandwiches, Deborah points across the street. Just two years ago, that dusty church lot was filled with 400 families living in storage containers. The families had arrived overnight, each holding just an armload of belongings hurriedly stuffed into plastic bags as ISIS cleared their villages.

If there is a loving and just God, we Americans should fear and tremble for our multitude of careless selfish policies that have wrecked and are currently wrecking destruction around the world.

And last night I read an Iraqi poem which flipped through the photos on the wall, remembering the lives and stories of fear and loss and despair. And some of the lives wrapped this despair around themselves like a heavy woolen shawl and crouched in a dark corner, their only comfort being a gentle rocking back and forth with eyes squeezed tight.

Yet others chose to straighten up, refusing to assign blame or to hunch over, waiting for justice to sift down like flakes of snow.  With girded courage, some set off to new pastures with just the faintest of breezes whispering hope. And yet some brushed aside the rubble, expectantly, to reveal ancient foundations upon which to build.

We including I cannot let bitterness take root. We including I cannot let the things of old shadow the decisions of today, We including I must look up expectantly, that we might know His new thing, a way in the wilderness.

Behold.