NEW YEAR: NEW MERCIES!

This post is adapted from theologyforgirls.com.  Plagiarism is the sincerest form of appreciation.

"Praise the LORD! Sing to the LORD a new song,

his praise in the assembly of the godly!"

Psalm 149:1

    "Sing a hymn newly composed, for you have now a new knowledge of God.   He is ever new in his manifestations; his mercies are new every morning; his deliverances are new in every night of sorrow; let your gratitude and thanksgivings be new also. . .
     "Our singing should be 'unto the Lord';  the songs we sing should be of him and to him, 'for of him, and to him, and through him are all things.' . .  Our new songs should be devised in Jehovah's honour; indeed all our newest thoughts should run towards him.  Never can we find a nobler subject for a song than the Lord, nor one more full of fresh matter for a new song, nor one which we are personally so much bound to sing as a new song 'unto the Lord.' "  ~  Charles Spurgeon 

             "It is of the LORD's mercies that we are not consumed, 
                                  because His compassions fail not. 
           They are new every morning: great is Your faithfulness."  
                                            Lamentations 3:22-23

  Happy New Year!

  

Slightly soiled

     Have you blown it yet? I have. On New Years Day I was squatting down trying to cram Tupperware bowls and lids into a low cupboard that was already jumbled with them and they kept tumbling out. I said, "Oh, darn!" It wasn't a mortal sin or anything but it came out of an irritation antithetical to the serene trust in God as sovereign-over-every-detail-of-my-life I had intended to exhibit this year.
     I had to re-center. Whether I am reflecting that truth in my life or not, He is the "Blessed Controller of All Things," as one wonderful women's Bible teacher put it.
     Isn't it a bummer when muddy footprints mess up your clean house? When you get a stain on a new blouse, a dent in your new car? I remember when Ben was only one week old, it was slightly disillusioning to find microscopic crescents of dirt under his tiny fingernails. Yes, of course I bathed him. But he still managed to get "used"- looking in that short span of time. 
     It seems a shame that everything new now will--guaranteed--become worn, dented, dingy, tattered, lost, or broken (some relationships included)? Like it or not, this is a world in which everything is subject to moth, rust and, well, the second law of thermodynamics. .  . It wasn't the original design but on the other hand, it isn't Plan B. Part of the original plan was that the original plan would be allowed to be corrupted and replaced with something better. Corrupted--that's already happened. Replaced by something better--that's still to come.
     My friend Carol Bishop used to point out that if everything were perfect in this life, we wouldn't long for the next one.
     Her longing paid off. She's living in that perfect life now.
     This year will get used-looking, too, as we trudge across the pages of January and beyond. We will scribble things into the squares of our future and have to cross some of them out--or wish we could. But our Father has a big eraser that can correct our mistakes. He has refreshing water which, in addition to quenching our thirst, can wash our dusty feet and cleanse our soiled souls. His life in us is a fountain, a fresh spring bubbling up, continually renewing His perfect life within us as we live out our imperfect ones in an imperfect world. We can be refreshed, can start over, every time we step aside, physically or internally, and spend a few minutes hanging out with him.

Today I am thankful for storm drains.

It's safe to come over

     Welcome to 2011! As he has for years, my brother Ted in Michigan called us at 9 PM our time to assure us, "It's safe to come over."
     It still isn't midnight here yet. When I looked at this page a few minutes ago, I squeaked, "Jerry, I already have another follower! Matt Blick!"
     Jerry came over and kissed me. "You mean I'm not the only follower of your non-existent blog?"
     Nope. There are three of us now.

     I'm still feeling sweet peace from the New Year's Eve service at our church. Recent rain and wind had left everything beyond the glass doors clean and cold. There might even have been a few stars.
     Folding chairs had been unfolded in the foyer to make the time more intimate. A few logs of different lengths, on end, grouped close to support a large lit candle and three hourglasses quietly snowing drifts of variegated sand.
     We were on the hinge between two years, the leader said. First, in God's presence, he had us "remember rightly" the past year. After a few moments of music-scented meditation, we were to list first the joys and blessings, then the pains and sorrows of our year.
     It was easy to list the joys. GOD. SALVATION. JERRY. FAMILY. FRIENDS. HEALTH. HOME. BLOG. RECONCILIATION WITH BROTHER.
     Then I sat, pen poised, to list my pains and sorrows. I waited but I couldn't come up with a single one. God has woven or is in the process of weaving each one into something beautiful.
     Next we were to "remember forward," listing our hopes and fears for 2011--on the twelve glass doors of the lobby with dry erase markers. Jerry and I went up right away. I knelt, drew a childish stick figure, and printed, "A baby for Ben and Jill."
     On the way back to our seats, we stopped at a table where someone poured us plastic cups of grape juice, as much as we wanted, representing the blood of Jesus poured out for us. Someone else let us tear off a hunk of home-made bread, symbolizing His body, willingly torn for us.
     We took Jesus back to our seats and, in our own time, drank Him and ate Him, letting Him nourish us, give us strength and substance, become our bones and blood and nerves and organs. I had enough in each hand to drink and chew alternately. As I did, I found myself thinking of the left-overs at the feeding of the five thousand. Why would Jesus make left-overs? I wondered. Did he mis-count, misjudge people's appetites? Wasn't that a waste of food, of divine power?
     He made more than necessary so they could be satisfied. It says in the text, "All ate and were satisfied. And the disciples picked up the left-overs."
     He wants us to help ourselves to Him, take as much as we want, knowing there's more. He wants us satisfied.
     Because He is a generous God and a God of abundance.
     May you have that kind of year, from the hands of that kind of God.

Today I am thankful for Jehovah-Jireh.