Recently, my son told me about a comment he made to a friend about our upcoming move.
“This move, for us all, is pushing the restart button.”
I love the visual. He nailed it, perfectly!
A different home and neighbourhood, with fresh possibilities opens the door to not just a physical, but also a mental break from the past, an opportunity to start fresh and an open door to try something new.
What a lovely way to anticipate this change … as a blank slate, a fresh (re)start.
As one who loves and sees value of understanding the past so that we do not repeat past mistakes in the future, I also love what the prophet Isaiah had to say about the past:
“Forget the former things;
do not dwell on the past.
There comes a time when we need not just move forward, but also stop glancing back.
For anyone, clumsy like myself, knows that glancing back can be the start of a catastrophe! Yet, I do it frequently … thinking that I will be assured that I am going in the right direction if I can see where I have been. But that simply takes my eyes off the direction I am heading, causing me to not live in the gift of today, but in the room with ripped wrappings and all the worn out gifts of yesterday.
Isaiah didn’t stop at counsel on the past, for he also had something to say about what is to come:
For I am about to do something new.
See, I have already begun!
Do you not see it?
I will make a pathway through the wilderness.
I will create rivers in the dry wasteland.”
Isaiah 43:18-19
The new thing that God has for our family, for all of us, had already been in the works long ago. God himself has cleared the way, bringing life to what seems dead, destitute.
That path in the darkness isn’t just about the hope for the future of my family, it is what is available to all.
In the Matthew Henry Commentary of the above verses, concerning the prophesy of the deliverance of Babylon, a reminder is given:
“there is reference to greater events. The redemption of sinners by Christ … and all that is to be done to rescue sinners, and to bring the believer to glory, is little, compared with that wondrous work of love, the redemption of man.”
Perhaps, better than I, Chris Tomlin describes the restart button best, in his song, Resurrection Power.
“I see the old has passed away
The new has come!
Now I have resurrection power
Living on the inside
Jesus, You have given us freedom
No longer bound by sin and darkness
Living in the light of Your goodness
You have given us freedom”
itsawonderfilledlife 