"See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the wilderness and streams in the wasteland." Isaiah 43:19

It has been a while since I started a blog post from scratch looking at a bible passage but as I read this one posted on twitter this morning a thought crossed my mind and I realised it was prevalent.

Yesterday the community of Cranmer Hall and Wesley study Centre went to an island of the Holy variety on a 'quiet' day. It was not so much quiet but it was a lovely day out. 

If any of you have been to Holy Island and Lindisfarne you will know that the causeway is completely cut off at certain times, as the tide comes in, which results in no access; the island is in fact an island. 

As we drove back yesterday evening the tides had started to turn and the water was slowly  making pathways across the sand. We commented on how it could 'sneak' up on you, as it wasn't an obvious surge of water. Before you know it you would be surrounded and stuck in a box on the top of polls for hours. 

As I read this passage it make me think of those streams in the sand. 

When God is working it doesn't always hit us like a wave hitting the shore line but actually moves slowly. 

Without the water this area looks like a 'wasteland', but surrounding the causeway was bright green luscious fields and trees. Without God we have desolate, pointless lives but if we allow Him to fill us with His streams of living water, ever be it slowly, before we know it we will be full and the things around us will be green and beautiful, fruitful and luscious. 

I don't know if you have a faith and are reading this. I do and to be honest I am feeling a bit like a barren wasteland at the moment. When i wrote this blog on Friday I was not looking forward to that evening, as many of our community are leaving us to start their ministry in the areas to which God has called them, which means at the same time I am hugely excited for them! 

So in a very practical sense God is starting a new thing, both for them and for us who are physically remaining in the community. 

So I think the passage hit me on many levels. The great thing is that this is an encouraging passage in which I know God is saying He has great and has exciting things planned, I simply need to let Him move, be it ever so slowly, and fill me up with His water.

Here is a picture of us all having a service on Holy Island - the Island was our chapel: