jennifer-roberts God gave me this message this morning and I am so excited to share it with you. I find it interesting (and just like God) to place this message on my heart and in my mind on New Year’s Eve as we prepare to say farewell to 2021 and enter 2022. Happy New Year!
My son has a seven-month-old, bearded dragon named Yoda. He is about a foot and a half long and his skin is a beautiful, prickly mix of sandy brown, sienna and muted orange.
Every few weeks, Yoda’s skin sheds naturally. Little by little, it just falls off in scaley section. Yoda appears to be oblivious and unbothered by the shedding as he moves around his enclosure. During his shedding seasons, I remove the old skin from his habitat and as tempting as it is, I resist the urge to remove any old skin that is still attached to him even if it looks like it is ready fall off.
I have a small, plastic bag of old skin that I have collected from Yoda’s many sheds. This may sound gross, but I have a reason for keeping it. I plan to facilitate some educational programs for youth this summer about the responsibilities of owning a bearded dragon. I am saving the old skin to use as a visual aid when I explain the process of reptile shedding.
Even though I have watched Yoda shed his skin every few weeks for months, I didn’t fully understand why its purpose was until I did some research.
Every so often, reptiles (animals like snakes and lizards) shed their skin so that they can continue to grow. They grow a new layer of skin underneath their old skin and then shed the old one. This is also known as sloughing or molting. This process happens repeatedly over the course of the reptile’s life so they can get rid of any parasites and continue to grow. I think we can all take a lesson from Yoda and other reptiles in the animal kingdom.
God gives us opportunities to shed our old skin, skin that is no longer serving us so that our new skin can emerge. As we grow in Christ, we need to be willing to let go old habits, old thought patterns and even old relationships. God is always trying to do something new in your life and in mine but we have to be willing to let go of the past.
Unlike Yoda, our shedding can be very uncomfortable and even painful but it is always worth it. It is hard to give up tangible things like unhealthy foods, electronic programming, cigarettes, alcohol and drugs and it can be crushing to let go of intangible things like small thinking, dysfunctional relationships, stagnant church memberships and poor financial stewardship. It can be difficult to trust God for our new skin.
But God is always asking us to trust Him as He transforms us into the person He created us to be. Each day that God allows us to open our eyes is a new opportunity to see Him show up in a new way, to experience His fresh Word, His new mercies, His new anointing, His new provision, His new direction for us but we have to be open to see it and experience it. We must be willing to shed our old skin.
When we hold on to old habits, old ways of thinking, old friendships that we have outgrown and that are parasitic, we impair our ability to grow and to experience God in a fresh way.
However, unlike Yoda’s old skin, which is useless, our old skin can be helpful. Our old skin serves as a testimony of how God has worked in our lives and how He has helped us to grow if we are willing to share our past experiences with others. When we share stores of our old skins, we can show other people what we used to be and how God changed us into something new to bring Him greater glory. Our testimonies can help encourage others to trust God for their change.
The Bible tells us in Isaiah 43:19, “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. In 2 Corinthians 5:17 God’s word says, “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here.”
Even though God created us to change, evolve and grow there are unseen forces of evil that are constantly trying to harm us.
In nature, parasites are living organisms that grow on or in a host organism, like a bearded dragon or a snake. The parasite feeds on the host organism, often to the detriment of the host. The parasite gets its nutrients and sustenance from the host often making the host sick or killing it all together. The process of shedding the old skin helps the host to rid itself of the harmful parasites.
Fear is a main, unseen parasite that feeds on humans if we allow it, if we maintain an environment or lifestyle that allows fear to fester. Even though the old is not serving us anymore, we choose to hold on to it because it is what know, and we are afraid of what we don’t know. Our old skin is familiar and comfortable even though it is futile, dysfunctional, and making us sick. Even though we don’t know what the future holds, we can choose to trust the One who created has already created the future.
I encourage you, as we prepare to transition into 2022, to take a leap of faith. I dare you to shed your old skin, trust God and grow into your new skin that is waiting just beneath the surface of fear, insecurity or whatever is feeding on you. Pray for greater sensitivity to God’s presence and his prodding. Keep the eyes of your heart open to God’s movement in your life. Challenge yourself to change and grow in this new season.
