Behold, I am doing a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it?
As I sit and meditate on these words from Isaiah 43:19, a picture springs to mind.
A bean seed, unfurling underground, breaking the surface of the garden’s parched and cracked dirt. Strong and tenacious, it stretches forth until it finds the pole planted in the earth. Strong and tenacious, it wraps itself around that pole and climbs, climbs, climbs, higher and higher.
Eyes closed, deep in meditation, I laugh out loud at the memory of the story of Jack and the Beanstalk, a story I asked for again and again as a child.
This beanstalk in my mind’s eye, grown from one single bean seed, is confident in its fruit-bearing capabilities.
Suddenly, I know. This beanstalk is me. Confidence, shattered by cancer, is returning, watered by the Spirit, weeded by Jesus, loved by the Father.
As I watch this beanstalk curl around the post in the ground, it reminds me of a strand of DNA.
The Lord’s word to me, spoken years ago in another time when I was lacking in confidence, washes over me again:
Kathy, I want you to know, down to the deepest part of you, down to your very bones, that you are who I made you to be. Your very footprint was fashioned by me, and in my book are written all the days of your life.
THIS is who I am. Strong. Tenacious. Confident in the Lord. It’s part of my DNA, the very building block of who God made me to be.
Behold, I am doing a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it?
