Depth of Meaning

The Beauty of (God's) Words

So often we take words for granted. We say things, we read things, but do we really grasp what they mean? Take this little story for instance. I'm currently attending an online healing retreat where you take time to write your story. The prompts for this week brought up a few rather raw fears and I left that time feeling like I was no closer to healing or resolution. Then I passed one of those message boards often found outside churches and schools.

Before I tell you what was on that sign, you need a little backstory. This year at school, our theme for the year is "Behold, I Make All Things New". So, you can imagine that I've seen this phrase fairly often. I even pass this particular message board everyday. While the board isn't associated with our school, it is connected to another church. (So it's already kinda a God thing that it even has the same message as our theme). I've of course thought about this phrase in planning for the year. Yet, it was in this moment that the meaning of those words struck me.

The Lord asked me, "Do you believe that I can make you new?" And that was when the full beauty and depth of those words hit me. The Lord wants to make us new. He wants to make everything new. All our wounds. All our pains. All our fears. All our broken dreams. All can be made new if we give them to God. That is the beauty of His promise. His very words can make us new through the power of His Word that took on flesh to free us from the power of sin and death. That is not just some far off ideal that is only for certain people, the saints, or people in the past. That promise is for all of us and if we let Him, it is real and working in our lives today.

If you let Him, He will make healing present, though it may not always be the healing you expect. He longs to make us new because He loves us. We are beloved children of a good Father. He greatly desires our happiness. He longs to give us what will make us happy, not fleetingly happy, but eternally happy. For us, the capacity to receive this happiness is bound up with the reality that we need to be renewed in order to receive it fully. Sin and woundedness are not what we were made for. God made us for more and He wants to help us get there. That is the depth of the meaning of the promise of God. His words actually bring about what they say. Today, let Him make you new.