One morning this week I was out in my garden just as the sun rose. The grass was covered with tiny sparkles of frost as if someone had sprinkled glitter or fairy dust. It reminded me of the manna God provided in the wilderness to the Israelites. It also reminded me how the Lord’s promises and gifts are new every morning.
When we become Christians, we step out of our old life into a new life with God’s Spirit residing within us. We are “born again” of the Spirit. The old has passed away. We don’t have to be stuck in our sin. We can confess, repent and move on. But even better, we start a new life with the Lord as our constant companion. As part of that gift of grace, every day is a new day. We have hope.
I was meditating on how gracious the Lord is to provide us with a new day, every day. No two are ever alike. Each sunrise is distinct. Each day brings us new thoughts, people, challenges, opportunities and ways to seek and find Him.
Walking the same pathway several days a week I can notice big and small changes over time. After a hard rain, the creek rises about a foot for every inch of rain. Sticks and leaves get sent barreling down the stream often leaving remnants of themselves plastered against the saplings that line the bank of the creek. But the most fun is finding the smaller less noticeable changes. Mark Cocker writes about this in his books about walking in England.* Regardless of how many times I take the same path, there are subtle changes in what is growing, the birds, the sky, the creek, the trees, flowers, bugs, animal tracks and people.
This morning I began my spring check of the vines, small bushes and tree saplings to see if their buds have swollen or popped out new leaves. The honeysuckle vine is leading the pack. This change comes on slowly, so if you are not looking for it, you’ll miss it. Once the trees appear lacey against the blue sky, the explosion has started.
The sky also presents us with new landscapes every day starting with the sunrise and ending with a quiet or explosive sunset. If you miss them, they are lost into history. The clouds that pass through change daily. Even the blue in the sky changes to varying shades depending on the time of day and whether you are looking straight up or at the horizon. As a landscape artist, I know how difficult it is to paint a realistic blue sky. In Scotland, the air is so clear that sometimes the cerulean blue sky looks unreal when you paint it. And that is just one color. Now think about all the color variations using the primary colors of red, blue and yellow. We think birds can see other colors in the ultraviolet spectrum. I fully expect that heaven will reveal more colors than we have here.
Once spring has taken off, a riot of change blankets the landscape. That’s why it’s good to start your inspection when you approach the edge of winter, so you won’t miss the small incremental gifts laid out for you each day. The next time you are out for a walk, take a moment to see just where you are in the season and anticipate what new gifts He will bestow upon you.
Humans seem to always be searching for something new. I think the Lord knows this. But sometimes we exchange buying something new for seeing something new that the Lord has laid out for us. Our satisfaction and enjoyment of commercial products doesn’t last long. But God provides us with something new every day whether it is part of nature, a conversation, a phone call, a letter, watching the clouds or hearing His voice tell us something. Don’t miss the fun of seeing Him hand you something new each day. It will make you exceedingly thankful.
“Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past. See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the wilderness and streams in the wasteland.”
Isaiah 43; 18-19 NIV
*(For more about Cocker’s books go to nature-reflections.com and click the tab: Books I Love.)
