The New is Here!

Okay folks, here we are, it is 2021. I’m not sure about you but I was pretty confident that we weren’t going to make it out of 2020 unscathed. Sadly, it has been a hard year. People fell ill, financial struggles came roaring in, isolation became burdensome and we lost loved ones to that “darn Corona,” as my four year old daughter so frequently says. It has only been about a year, but it feels like a lifetime, as my almost two year old doesn’t know a world without face masks and buckets of hand sanitizer. 

When the enormity of this started last year, my heart found itself in a constant state of racing. Like many, I don’t do well with the unfamiliar, with the uncertainty, with a sense of “will we make it out of this?” Staying home with the same six people every day started to feel suffocating. I adore my family but I began to feel claustrophobic, and my anxiety began to skyrocket. I started to fear the worst. “Lord what is happening? Is the world ending? Will my kids ever visit a library, museum or friend’s house again? Will this disease kill us? Will we ever be able to hug our loved ones? Will we end up in financial ruin? Will my kids begin to live in a world full of fear?

One afternoon, I was sitting in my daughter’s rocking chair, nursing her to sleep. My mind had been racing, with all the possibilities to come. My heart was crying to my Lord, begging for Him to change the course of the state of our current world. Like the good father that He is, He quietly responded. He so tenderly answered my prayers but not in the way I was expecting. He started to quietly whisper into my heart. “I can change things and I will. I can use this pain and heartache to make things beautiful and NEW, if people will just let me. Just wait and see.” 

My eyes began to be flooded with visions of families laughing, families sitting together for dinner for the first time in years. I saw people forced to look each other in the eyes, to expose their pains and grievances. I saw veils of what seemed important and urgent falling off of previously blinded eyes. I saw the powerhouse of the family unit being reinvented, brought back to its roots, re-established in a new and beautiful way. 

“The people dwelling in darkness have seen a great light.” Isaiah 9:2 couldn’t have been more poignant at this moment. My heart was overwhelmed in seeing that amidst the darkness, pain and fear that our world was living in, God’s overwhelming light can and will make things bright and new, if only we’d allow Him. In the same way that I throw my hands up into the shape of a ‘T’ as a signal to my kiddos that things are getting out of control and we need to take a “time-out”, our Lord allowed the world a needed pause. 

Please know that I don’t say this to dismiss the tragedy, heartache and sheer crisis that this horrible coronavirus has caused. Yet, when we can set our hearts in knowing that our Lord is at work, we are able to recognize the light in the darkness. I mean when will you ever be able to say “No” like this ever again? When will the world ever give you an unshaming permission to ignore all seemingly important responsibilities so you can stay home and cuddle your loved ones, or simply spend some much needed and neglected time in prayer? Soccer practice- nope! That urgent meeting with the PTA- nope! That play your kids practiced- nope! The fundraiser event you worked so hard on – nope! The 117th birthday party this year – nope! 

All these events are beautiful in and of themselves, yet when we live our lives racing around from one thing to the next, we start to bucket everything as urgent and important.  Then sadly, the real urgently important job we have as spouse, parent, daughter, or friend begins to fade to the wayside. We can say running around for all these meetings at our kiddos’ school, are for the children. We can convince ourselves that working 99 hours a week is for our family. We can especially believe the lie that neglecting our family for the sake of our commitments at church is what God desires. Sadly, in a world that has grown to expect nothing less, we can convince ourselves that our busyness is how we love. Yet, when we haven’t had more than three minutes a week to sit face-to-face with the ones that so desperately want us, their eyes often cannot recognize the deep love hidden behind ours. 

But it isn’t too late, but rather it is time for something NEW! As we enter this new year, rest your heart, cast aside your fear and know that our Lord desires to restore us to who we were designed and created to be. But let’s be clear here. God did not say all brokenness would be fixed, perfected, or simply disappear through this extra time we’ve had. In fact, in some homes, the mayhem may have only increased, the pain or loneliness only seemed darker, and the fear only stronger. Yet our Lord promised that “He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death’ or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.” Revelation 21:4. Therefore, if we allow Him to move, if we’d invite Him in, if we make space for Him in our homes and specifically our hearts, maybe just maybe he can transform us from a broken and perfection seeking family to a messy and holy family. 

No matter where you are on your journey, don’t be discouraged. Whether you are simply starting out your young adult life, or are gazing out towards grandchildren and beyond, it is never too late to let our Lord transform you and make you NEW.  When our patterns, habits, or wounds feel unbreakable or unfixable we must not buy into the lie that God doesn’t want to be busy doing something new and astounding within you. Only our unwillingness to receive Him is stopping him. Our Lord assured our weary hearts in Isaiah 43:18 “Forget the former things! Do not dwell on the past. See, I am doing a NEW THING!”

So my friends, though I continue to pray unceasingly for an end to this horrible pandemic caused by the “darn Corona,” I will choose to believe that our Lord will bring beauty out of this darkness. I will live in the hope that one day sociologists will look back on this time and reflect on how this undeclared “Time-Out” caused people, and often families, to rethink, re-evaluate and re-establish the way they live. God will be smiling down and giving his people a gentle little wink. So have faith, hope and know that “if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!” (2 Corinthians 5:17).

 ~Suzanne Bilodeau