New

 “Return, O virgin Israel,

    return to these your cities.
How long will you waver,
    O faithless daughter?
For the Lord has created a new thing on the earth:
    a woman encircles a man.”

Jeremiah 31:22

What best captures that sense of new, that can catch your breath up like the breeze joyfully picks up the dandelion seeds? What makes your heart still jump with new? The golden green of young maple leaves, the first catbird song, the first beautiful blue of a carefully-carried-away-hatched robin egg does that for me, still. New!

In an enigmatic way, this is what that strange-to-our-ears verse indicates: “a woman encircles a man.” New. So breath-taking new. Interpretations vary: Some think it was a common proverb adapted. Some say it was the female Israel against the male Babylon that has finally conquered. Others see it as female Israel returning and cleaving to the Lord, her husband. Yet another interpretation is that the security of the land under the Lord’s new covenant will be so great that the women can be the defenders, so minimal any threat would be.

Instead of confusing, let this verse be promising: It is the God who makes something new. Out of the ashes of rebellion and faithlessness and judgment, comes the God who makes all things new, including hearts and dispositions toward him. The God who out of war creates security. The God who does that breathtaking, can-barely-hope-for new, and who will make all things new. Resurrection is this God: “I am the Resurrection and the Life” (John 11:25). From who he is, Resurrection, he does: “I am making all things new” (Rev. 21:5).