Something new is on the way!

Fresh Manna
by Renee Burt

A few weeks ago, I was thinking that I can’t remember a more beautiful fall than the one we’ve had this year. The colors were so brilliant, the temperatures outside were so warm that I got to happily drag out all my flips flops again, and sleeping at night with the windows open was absolutely heavenly. Since then, the temperatures have cooled some, and most of the leaves are down. And as I’m looking out right now at our backyard, I can’t help but think what a difference from just a few short weeks ago.

But even with every leaf down…the trees stripped bare…there’s an ethereal beauty to it all, if you look closely! I hope you don’t mind my musings here…but it’s as if the trees have had everything of beauty taken away from them. And yet…they still stand tall…strong…solid…rooted securely…affected outwardly, but not affected inwardly. They’re still trees…but they’re still beautiful, only in a different way. You can see it, if you don’t get blinded to it, by comparing them to what they used to look like!

As I thought about that, so many people who I love so dearly came to mind. Some of them have been stripped bare of their health…others of their job, home, or finances…still others of a relationship with someone in their family. And yet, they still are standing tall…strong…solid…rooted securely in the heart conviction that God has something good ahead for them. And just like those trees are just bare for a season…their circumstances are only for a season. Spring will come again…not only to the trees in my backyard, but to our lives too! But until then? No matter what it looks like, our lives are still beautiful…God hasn’t forsaken us…and don’t ever forget…something new is on the way!

Isaiah 43:18-19, 21 MSG ~ “Forget about what’s happened; don’t keep going over old history. Be alert, be present. I’m about to do something brand-new. It’s bursting out! Don’t you see it? There it is! I’m making a road through the desert, rivers in the badlands…for the people I chose, the people I made especially for myself, a people custom-made to praise me.

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