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 43:19

It’s gonna be a bright (bright), bright (bright)
Sun-shiny day… – Johnny Nash

Good morning, friends. Today is a beautiful, sunshiny, springlike morning that seems to be saying “Welcome to a new month! All the dark, wet, snowy, sub-freezing days of December-February are behind us. Look, anything is possible!”

Life can be overwhelming sometimes. It comes at us hard. Mistakes, betrayals, poor choices, consequences, grief, disappointment, trouble, heartache, heartbreak, lost opportunity, unexpected costs, broken dreams.

Regardless, the sun is up this morning and the birds are singing their hearts out and it is a new month and – always – anything is possible.

It is also Sunday. Rebekah and I will walk to church and – in the same way as we did Friday night (60 People and Their Best Food) – we will take the bread and the wine and we will celebrate the fact of God’s goodness and love.

Resting in God’s love does not remove the hard facts of life, the disappointment and the trouble. God promises to walk through the valley of the shadow with us – not skip, detour or erase it (Psalm 23).

The message of this gorgeous March 1st morning – and of taking communion – is also the promise that life holds in every moment. “I am making a way in the wilderness, and streams in the wasteland…”

“See! I am doing a New Thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it?”

Do you not perceive it?

– DEREK