A Path in the Wilderness

Isaiah 43:19 - "Look!  I'm doing a new thing; now it sprouts up; don't you recognize it?  I'm making a way in the desert, paths in the wilderness."

I love that verse, and while it sounds great, "a new thing," a way where there used to be no way, what we forget in our enthusiasm is that new is not easy.  There is hard work to be done in clearing the path.  Sometimes God opens a door and boom! there you go.  But sometimes God shows you the end in sight and hands you a shovel or a machete or a plow.  I now understand about the birth pangs of a new creation in a way I didn't used to.  Sometimes it's easy to make something new; sometimes there are a lot of bramble and thorns and underbrush to clear first. 

...But then, after the hard work and the blisters, you get to look back at the path God gave you the strength to clear and you praise his holy name and testify that with God's help, it is possible.