“Behold I make all things new.” (Rev. 21:5)

This verse has always been such a deep and abiding comfort to me.

When I fall into the muddy, messy darkness of sin, when I make a mistake that I fear deep in my gut may harm a relationship, when a season of suffering seems to meld one day into the next until my prayer life resides in a dry, lifeless desert….

I hear Him whisper it… as I come forth from the confessional, as I witness the fruit which springs forth from forgiveness and vulnerability, when the light breaks forth like the dawn and I can finally feel His presence again- the words shake my soul.

“I make all things new.”

It is a promise that is, at any given moment, always true, for any part of our lives that we allow Him into. The hope this produces in me has been amplified amidst the political and social climate of the past year. How many times in the past 13 months have I found myself sighing, shuddering, muttering in anger, despair, frustration and wondering “God WHAT are you doing? WHERE are you? What are we doing? What has this world COME to?”

And then I hear the sound of hope. “My daughter, my beloved, behold, I am making all things new.”

And then, I remember. He’s in it. He’s in all of it. In the craziness that is unfolding- He is present, powerful, loving us, pursuing us, molding us and making us new. Doing a new thing.

If you haven’t seen “the Chosen” yet, dear sister (or brother) YOU MUST. This inspired work of art and creative cinematics has changed the way I read the Gospels and has deepened my relationship with Christ and my recognition of His voice in my life. And in one of my all time favorite scenes- the one in which Jesus calls Matthew, the tax collector, to follow Him, His response to the guffaws and indignation of others is to cast a mischievous, edgy but still entirely loving glance at them and say simply “Get used to different.” This has become a tagline for the show, and, in sorts, an anthem for how I understand the Spirit moving in my life.

When I am tempted to doubt that our future has any sort of trajectory that could lead anywhere good, I remember those who walked closely with Christ, and how surprised they must have felt when they saw Him love so fiercely on sinners and outcasts, take care to heal those society had deemed unworthy, how He fearlessly interacted with lepers and slept peacefully through the storm, undisturbed by the waves…. Isn’t that what makes Him so beautiful, so enticing, so GOOD? He is different than what we thought, what we were told, what we projected onto Him from our own woundedness. He is SO much more.

Isn’t that what the apostles learned as they left everything they knew behind and followed Jesus into the homes of sinners and gentiles and ultimately to the cross? Perhaps it’s what the shepherds felt when they rushed to meet a Messiah and found a sleeping newborn?

He didn’t come for political conquest…but to do a new thing, a better thing. A different thing than what we expected. A thing we can only experience when we let ourselves be intimate with Him, and Him with us. When we activate the Holy Spirit that is so deeply ours, and let him transform. Praise Him for it!

And, sister, He’s doing it, still, today. His Spirit is alive, moving, healing- ready to recreate our understanding of who we are to Him.

Let’s be here for it, sisters, for what God’s doing in our world, in our Church and within our own stories. Even when it pushes us into the uncomfortable, or challenges cultural norms, even when it doesn’t look like imminent victory, or simply just looks different than we thought it would. Let’s get used to different, and in the same breath, never cease to expect God to be at work in a new way.

What if politics didn’t disturb our peace? What if we put down our phones and lifted our hands? What if we started encountering our neighbors with a genuine love, a real interest in their stories and desire to see Jesus heal them? What if we changed our “why” to “show me” and remained convicted that He will.

When God does a new thing, the whole earth shakes. Nations of disciples are made. Our hearts feast on a wholeness we were never thought possible.

I’m so sure of it, I can feel it in my bones…and in the quickening of my heart as I type the words I know are meant for YOU, and for the world and for a time such as this-

“Behold, I make all things new.”