Watch This!

“Watch this” he cries in delight. The newest trick he has learned is about to be shown in its entire splendor. He has worked for hours on this trick. He has perfected the takeoff and fallen a hundred times on landing but he is sure now that it will work. The trick will work and you will be amazed.

You watch because in this moment you are not paying attention to the millions of things that are grabbing at you. You watch because this is your beloved son and you want to see what he is going to make happen. The bike has become like an extension of his body. He knows it intimately. Even though it is only a machine, it has become part of him. 

You watch the near perfect execution of the trick and cheer for him. You watch. That is all you do. You watch.

“Watch this” God cries in delight. God has worked outside of time and brought together a new possibility. A new story is unfolding and you are being allowed to watch. You watch as unlikely pieces come together across space and time. You watch as forces you would never have imagined work together and create something vastly different from all that has gone before. You see the creation of beauty and you stand awed.

I was feeling low and wondering about this new story God is writing in my life. The story is strange. This story is making my heart stretch, bend in ways I would never have imagined. This story has peeled layer after layer of protective coverings off my soul. I had placed those coverings there on purpose. They were good for the time they served but now they have to come off and with the loss of each layer more and more receptors become available. These receptors capture joy and pain.   So while the good is so much better, the awful things that happen hurt more than one could imagine.

I was feeling low and wondering about this new story. I was tired of the new story and trying to figure out how to get back to the old story.  I was tired when I heard the cry “Watch this!”  I looked up from my thoughts to see God doing something beautiful.

God who rewrote the story of Ruth was not done with the story of me. God who rewrote the story of Elizabeth was not done with the story of me. God who rewrote the story of Samson was not done with the story of me. God who rewrote the story of Jesus, even though there seemed nothing left to do, was not done with the story of me.

“For I am about to create new heavens and a new earth; the former things shall not be remembered or come to mind. But be glad and rejoice forever in what I am creating.” (Isaiah 65:17-18)

So in quiet adoration, I watch. I watch and I wait and I prepare for the coming of the Lord. I wait and watch to see what this new story will be. I forget for a moment who I was and think on the possibility of who I will be.