Making Room for New Life

I love to rearrange the furniture in our house.

My husband has grown used to hearing, “What if we put the couch there this time?” or “Let’s try the table by the window again.” Without fail, he says yes, lifts a corner, and we begin.

In two years, we have moved the kitchen table between three different spots. Twice.

I know it might sound chaotic. But for me, rearranging is a kind of renewal. It is a chance to see familiar things from a new angle, to create space for the season we are in now, to refresh how we gather, rest, and live together.

Sometimes, faith is like that too. It is not always about discarding the old. Often it is about shifting what we already have so we can better notice God’s presence. Sometimes it is a change of position, a new prayer practice, a new way of reading Scripture, or a new question we let ourselves ask.

God does not demand that we have everything perfect; God delights in our willingness to try something new, to move, to shift, to make space.

The prophet Isaiah offers this word from the Lord: “I am about to do a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it?” (Isaiah 43:19). These words were spoken to people living in exile. They were disoriented, far from home, and unsure of what was next. God’s promise was not about returning to the past. It was an invitation to open their eyes to a new future.

Rearranging might seem small, but it can be one way we practice perceiving. We shift our space, our patterns, our hearts. In the process, we may begin to glimpse the new thing God is doing in our midst.

So what might you rearrange — physically, spiritually, or relationally — to see the same space in a new light?

Sometimes new life begins with just one brave little shift.