This week we encounter Isaiah 65:17-25, where the prophet brings the word of the Lord, “For I am about to create new heavens and a new earth; …be glad and rejoice forever in what I am creating.” This scripture and many others like it remind us of the ways that God is always making new. And we need these reminders that God is always engaged in this creative endeavor, this work of making new again and again, because we all know how hard it is to embrace newness and change. Yet our God is a God of new things, of constant creation, and invites us to be fully invested, even rejoicing, in the possibilities of participating in this. We are invited to be stewards, the caretakers, of God’s creative force lived out in the world. Maybe that feels overwhelming. I think we often feel that we are “only” small parts of God’s larger story, that God’s activity is more directed toward us. But what if we begin to think of the ways that God’s story comes into being through us? That God’s kingdom newness is birthed through our ability to be stewards carrying God’s shalom – God’s peace, love, and just action – in every encounter we might have.
in peace,
Pastor Christy
