All Things New

Back in October, we had a terrible ice storm.  In fact, there are many homes around us who are still cleaning up the debris left by it.  Because it happened in the fall, the trees still had their leaves and many ended up dying--they couldn't withstand the weight of the ice.

As I was walking around the front yard this morning, I noticed that the azaleas and hydrangeas were starting to bud and bloom again.  Looking at the bushes a few weeks ago, we thought they were dead and we would have to start from scratch again.  My mother in law chopped away on Easter weekend and found some green at the bottom.  Brian worked a on them later in the week and found more.  The new growth is a huge contrast to the old.  Most of it is next to the old and not in it the current bushes.  So, sadly, we are going to have to cut out most of the old.  

I say sadly because those bushes were tall and full...the new is short and sparse.  

We could continue to leave the old because it's bigger and it's what has been there for years.  But if we do, we will lose the new growth and just have tall, brown bushes. If we cut out the old, the house will look bare for the next few years until the new growth expands and fills in the gaps left by the old.  I wish this were an overnight process, but it's not (*SIGH*).  It will take several seasons and a lot of hard work before the flower bed looks lush and inviting. 

I can't help but think of how that same concept translates to us.  We weather some pretty bad storms and seldom do we come out unchanged.  In fact, parts of us die and never grow again.  We can continue to water and care for those dead parts, hoping they will miraculously come back to life. We can wallow in the fact they are not blooming.  We can mourn the flowers we used to have.

Or we can cultivate the new parts--the fresh things that God is teaching us and doing in us and bringing forward for the world to enjoy-the parts that bring a new beauty and joy--different than the old and maybe even more beautiful. in their time.

It doesn't mean we can't still grieve the old.  If we didn't grieve that part, then it probably didn't matter much.  There's something cathartic about a good cry over what we used to have.  But in the lamenting, we can also smile at the bittersweet shoots popping out of us and reaching toward the Son.  The new blooms God is bringing forth.

"See, I am doing a new thing!  Now it springs up; do you know perceive it?  I am making a way in the wilderness and streams in the wasteland."

Isaiah 43:19