When God Does a New Thing: A New Year Reflection

Do not remember the former things
    or consider the things of old.
I am about to do a new thing;
    now it springs forth; do you not perceive it?
I will make a way in the wilderness
    and rivers in the desert
The wild animals will honor me,
    the jackals and the ostriches,
for I give water in the wilderness,
    rivers in the desert,
to give drink to my chosen people,
    the people whom I formed for myself
so that they might declare my praise.
Isaiah 43:18-21

Isn’t it telling that when the prophet declares that God is up to something new, it is signified by a healing in the ecology, a restoration of the wildlife, and an opportunity for God’s people to be a part of the new flourishing of Creation? The “new” is never just for humanity. It’s for all of Creation to rejoice in the falling away of the systems of brokenness and abuse and to seek a bold, hopeful future. 
 
A new year doesn’t solve everything. It doesn’t right all of the wrongs of the 365 days that preceded it. It doesn’t undo the damages done nor bring back the lives lost. A new year doesn’t erase the feelings of fear, anger, hopelessness, and despair that we just lived through. It doesn’t mend the heartbreak. It doesn’t restore the devastation. That would be asking too much of a turn of the calendar. 
 
Yet a new year is filled with potential. It is ripe with opportunity. A new year brings with it the hope that this one will be better, that this one will be more just and more loving.

 A new year asks us to reflect on what we want to leave behind and what we’d like to see emerge. Granted, we won’t be able to leave it all behind, not at first. Not on day one. But we can step into this new year in the hopes that the good news will outweigh the bad. After all, we are people of good news! 
 
There’s nothing magical that happens when we move from December 31st to January 1st. But we can approach this as a year as a time when maybe God will do a new thing.

​Because if we believe that God is doing a new thing, then we’ll live in a new way and find ourselves right in the middle of the new thing that God is doing. ​

​Derrick Weston
​Director of Theological Education & Formation
Creation Justice Ministries

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