All Things New

Bright morning. Beautiful, bright, spring morning.
Sunshine. Brilliant sunshine.
Snow, ice, grass....mud. "Splash!" Running through mud and slush. Wind in hair, song in ears.

"Rise up, O you sleeper, awake
The dawn is upon you
Rise up, O you sleeper, awake
He makes all things new
All things new."

Andrew Peterson

True words. True, spring words. Reality, ever present for me at this time. So much newness. So much change. So much anticipation and wondering.

 

Jesus makes all things new. He has done that in my life. He still does that.

 

He is constantly changing me, chiseling away at this stubborn block of rock, shaping me more and more into His likeness. I feel the pain of His chipping and hammering, and yet, He allows me to also feel the glory of progress made. I'm so far from perfection.....I won't be there till Heaven, and yet He continues to make me new.

 

Do we see our need for newness enough?

I wondered that this morning. After jogging around the beautiful Lake G., seeing the snow and ice melting away, looking at grass turning greener and greener, smelling the aromas of freshness that come with the warming weather, I wondered if I too need more springs in my life.

There's still more ice in my heart that needs to melt away.

 

I need to love God more.
Not in a duteous Christianeese way. It's more of a deep, inward knowledge and desire that I need and want to love Him more. I need Him to melt away the snow and ice in my heart so that the flowers and grass of love for Him can grow.
I want more spring!

But there is also this truth that without the ice and snow there would be no spring.

Ice is cold and hard. Painful and death to the flowers and green. And yet it is life as it melts away and waters the grass. Without the snow and ice there is no spring.
No newness.
No freshness in the air.

Is it not the same in sanctification?
Without the cold hardness of sin would we see our need for newness?
It is only the snow that makes spring so beautiful.
It is only sin that makes redemption so glorious.

If we already see ourselves as good and complete, then why on earth would we want newness of life? There would be no need for Jesus.

But there is need for Him. I need my Jesus! I need Him to make me new! I need Him to melt away the sin in my life. I need Him to teach me to love Him more!
And He promises to do so.
That is beauty!
That is spring.

Glory!
Wonder!
Thrill!

Gah....the thrill of it excites me to no end!

There is so much to rejoice in. Christ has given us life! Do we see that? Do we let that soak us, saturating us like a sponge? It's glorious friends! Pure amazing grace flowing down!

I need to think about that more.
Maybe that's why God gives spring. To remind me. To make me think. To cause my heart to glory in the God of my salvation.

He makes all things new.
All. Things.
Gloriously new.


Little Diapers

Little diapers.
Newborn, 1, 3, & 4.
I packaged all the size 2's last week.

These were meant for babies. No duh.
They weren't meant for shelves. They weren't meant to be wrapped up with ribbon and just placed on a shelf to be unused. They were meant for babies butts.

Call me pathetic, sentimental, whatever.....but as I sat there at the Pregnancy Helpline Center that I work at, folding and wrapping hundreds of diapers, all I could think of were the hundreds of babies that would never use those diapers.

Hundreds of little butts that will never be wiped.
Hundreds of little giggles that will never be heard.
Hundreds of chubby, rippley legs that will never be tickled.
Hundreds of diapers and wipes that will never be used.

Gosh, it saves lots of time right? Lots of time to care and feed baby. Lots of time to clean and wipe and change. Lots of inconvenience. Lots of frustration. Lots of dying to self.

The diapers I folded were clean. Clean diapers. Clean diapers look nice and neat, all tied up with bows.
Newsflash! Diapers weren't meant to stay that way! They were meant to be dirtied. They were meant to be pooped on and thrown away because that means a baby is wearing, using and pooping on them and that is a beautiful, BEAUTIFUL thing!!!
Babies are beautiful things.

There's a lot of work. A lot of expense. A lot....I mean, a lack of sleep. A LOT of dying to self.
But this is a good thing! So much of life is dying to self for the sake of others.
I'm not a mom.
I hope to be someday.
I've grown up in a house with a lot of kids and I know it's over my head. It's more than I can handle. It's overwhelming. It's complicated and complex.
And yet....
I find it so amazing.

Children are beautiful.
They're vipers in diapers, yes.  But really life, children, birth, babies, it's all a humongous miracle if you ask me. It's a mess and it's chaos, but it's a beautiful bit of wreckage!

So I'm praying. I'm praying that all of those lovely, clean, little diapers tied with ribbon, sitting on those shelves, will soon be filled up to the max with poop and pee from little babies backsides! I am praying that those diapers will be soiled and thrown away very VERY soon! I am praying that we'll need extra help getting diapers ready to give away to Mommas in need.
That's what I'm praying.

God, please fill those little diapers!