You Must be New?

Something really fun happened as I was working in the boutique the other day. A precious soul came in to shop. She stopped short, looked at me and said, " You must be new! I haven't seen you before". A big smile came across my face and I replied, "Really? Well I'm not new they just keep me in the back". As she continued to shop and we had pleasant conversation, I just laughed to myself. Not because I have owned this boutique for over 14 years and have been a constant presence in it. Or the fact that I have actually assisted this sweet woman in the past. It was because God was all over this moment.

You see, I have been in a season of pruning. The Lord has been lovingly pruning things in me and in my life that can not grow so that He can heal me and transform me. A few months ago the Lord whispered to me, "it's a New season". Whew! Since then I have been looking for the indications of the new season. As I write this, the evidence of a new season is becoming more and more apparent. 

A couple of weeks before this experience in the boutique, I had been studying 2 Cor. 4:6-11. There is so much teaching and meaning in these scriptures. While Paul and the early Christians were suffering and facing death in the physical, another way this scripture can be applied is to explain how we are constantly dying to self so that Christ's love and power is evident in us. 

I was sitting next to our big dining room windows pondering these scriptures when the Holy Spirit whispered to me to look out the window and asked me, "what do you see?". The seasons were changing from Winter into Spring so I answered, "I see blooming trees and dead looking trees, what do you want me to see, Lord?" I immediately heard," life among death, beauty among blight, always dying and always living."

Without death there is no resurrection. We get to experience that resurrected life both here right now on earth and when we pass through a physical death to eternity. But the key is that resurrected life, fullness of joy, is here and now! Not later, NOW.

As I look out those same windows today I see trees filled with green living leaves. Something that once appeared dead, filled with new life. Something that was once dormant, now alive and made new. 

Back to that moment in the boutique....

So yeah, I am NEW. I am new in Christ, bursting with new life and filled with joy.

That is why that small interaction with this customer made me laugh and have so much joy. God orchestrated this moment perfectly. Just to point out that He has made me new, and that it is a new season. And the cherry on top was that she was wearing a tee shirt that said "God is Good". How perfect is that! Yes! He is!