When my husband and I moved to Illinois, we lived in a fifty-year-old home that was full of problems. The basement leaked. The windows were painted shut and the well-water turned my laundry orange. I couldn’t wait to get out of that old house. I wanted something new.

After several years of waiting, God gave us the opportunity to build a brand new home. We bought a piece of land and hired a builder. To keep costs down, we did a lot of the work ourselves.

At the time our children were ages five and two. During the five months of construction they spent a lot of time at the babysitter’s house, but we tried to get them involved with the building process by giving them tours of the house at various stages of construction, getting them involved in small clean-up projects, and letting them pick out the paint for their new rooms.

As the house neared completion, we were all excited about moving in—or at least most of us were. One day I took the kids to the house for one last clean-up before the carpet installers arrived. We were sweeping the plain brown sub-floor of my son’s room when he piped up in his two-year-old voice, “Let’s not pretend that this is my room anymore.”

My son didn’t want to move. The new room was an empty space with a rough wooden floor. To him it didn’t look as appealing as his old room with soft carpeting and a comfortable bed. He didn’t want the new because he couldn’t envision the finished project.

Sometimes I act the same way with God. He’s continually transforming me into a new person. But sometimes I resist because I can’t see what that will look like.

God asks me,

Behold, I am doing a new thing;
now it springs forth, do you not perceive it? Isaiah 43:19a

Honestly, I can’t always see God’s new thing. When troubles seem to block my view of my Savior, I can’t see God working.

That’s when I need to remember what comes next in Isaiah 43:19:

I will make a way in the wilderness
and rivers in the desert.

When God is starting something new in my life it’s to show me a way out of the desert I’m in and provide springs of water in the wilderness. His new thing is always good–even though I might not see it right away.

Once my son saw the finished room in the new house he was as excited about moving as the rest of us. The original problem was, at first, the new didn’t look as good as the old.

When we’re facing something new we need to remember that God is always working to make our lives better–even if that new thing still looks like an empty room with a plywood floor.

Next step: Are you resisting the new beginnings God has for you? At times we all struggle against the new because we’re comfortable with the old. But let’s remember that God always desires the best for us.