Do You Not Perceive It?

Apr 18

I didn’t expect to be away this long… but life unfolded in a way that asked for my attention.

So, here I am with an update— an update on life—my life… after a silent, unknown, yet welcomed hiatus.
There’s much I would love, and hope, to share with you all as a testimony, and in transparency… but much like my recent quiet season, I understand that everything has its time.

“For everything there is a season,
and a time for every matter under heaven:”
(Ecclesiastes 3:1, ESV)

During this welcomed hiatus, there was time to reflect on the process God was leading me through… the ways my life was beginning to change, and what He was doing.

I say that carefully… because the language I have now wasn’t there when I was living it—only the sense that my life would change in ways I couldn’t yet understand.

In this blog, I share glimpses of this journey, what I can remember, and the refreshing Word of God that kept me and held me during this time.

There was a moment. I was in my previous home… my apartment… and I found myself thinking about what my life was like. The rhythm of my days, my work, my personal life, the people around me… in the most intimate ways.

The weight of it.

The repetition.

The cycle.

One evening while the television was on, I sat on the loveseat, hardly paying attention to the screen.

My Mind drifted… to the people, to all that had come to define that season in my life.

Then the bible verse came to mind—God is doing a new thing… do you not perceive it? I couldn’t remember where it was at first; I only remembered what it said.

So, I went looking for it… searching until I found it in Isaiah 43.

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

After reading it, I wrote it down on a small notepad, one of those with the magnetic piece on the back that sticks to the refrigerator. I kept it there, where I could see it. Almost like I was holding onto it… or maybe it was holding onto me.

I didn’t see it yet… I hadn’t lived it out, but I knew. God had already spoken that what I was living would become the former things.

Because in the same chapter, just before it speaks of the new thing, Scripture says:

“Remember not the former things, nor consider the things of old.” (Isaiah 43:18, ESV)

When I read those words, I paused… because I didn’t know how it’d be possible. What I was living was still so present. I couldn’t yet see how it would ever become the former things.

Sometime after, I learned I had completed everything I needed to graduate; the credits, the requirements—all of it. More on this in another blog, one day!

I was preparing to graduate. Just weeks away from completing my master’s. (Yay! Thank you, Jesus.)

And the verse came to mind once more… “Behold, I am doing a new thing… do you not perceive it?”

Something in me stilled.

This moment was more than just an accomplishment. It felt like a reminder.

Like God was gently showing me that something new was already in motion. That this step, this milestone, was part of a larger shift.

In His kindness, He allowed the news of my graduation to bring me joy… not because the achievement itself was the source… but because He was.

Sometimes God will use what is in front of you to remind you of who He is, not the thing itself, but Him moving through it.

A new chapter was about to open for me— I didn’t know yet, but it would come with loss.

Later, with grief, closed doors, and then…with silence.

Looking back, I recognize that season of silence through Psalm 46:10… “Be still and know that I am God.”

From July 2025 to recently, I was in this season of hiatus. Some of you may have noticed-- there were moments I shared dates for blog releases, but then I’d feel the quiet tug of the Holy Spirit— Not this theme.. or simply not yet.

When I finally listened, I became still altogether.

I learned what it meant to be still. To allow what was underneath to come to the surface: heartbreak, loss, grief, anxiety, pain, abandonment, loneliness.

I write these words with a sense of apprehension… because this is vulnerable for me… I need to take a moment to exhale…

Has this ever happened to you?

Can you relate to the act of moving on, simply because what you’re feeling is too loud, you try to maintain normalcy by keeping up with daily life? ‍ ‍

I’m learning that God’s timing doesn’t always align with what we feel or expect… but He has a way of revealing when a season is coming to an end, and when something new is beginning.

Sometimes through a quiet knowing, sometimes through a thought… but most often, through His Word.

As it says in:

Ecclesiastes 3:11 “He has made everything beautiful in its time. Also, He has put eternity into man’s heart, yet so that he cannot find out what God has done from the beginning to the end.”

God, In his mercy, stopped me where I was. I had no choice but to be still.. to surrender even the things that once soothed me, so I could walk the process in a true—unfiltered way.

Which brings me back to Isaiah 43. Before it speaks of the new thing, the word of God says:

“Do not remember the former things, nor the things of old”

I read the full chapter of Isaiah 43 for the first time, and what stood out to me immediately was how God speaks from the very beginning:

“Do not fear, I have redeemed you; I have called you by your name; you are Mine.” (Isaiah 43:1 ESV)

There was something so personal about that.
It spoke to God’s active redemption—not something distant, but present. Intentional.

And when I continued reading just a few verses later— once again:

‘Do not remember the former things,
nor consider the things of old…’

I couldn’t help but think about His timing…
the way He brought that word to my mind, the way He held me in it, even before I fully understood what it would mean.

Because at the time, I was still in the middle of what would later become the former things.
I was living it… walking through it in real time.

And yet, somehow, God allowed me to see ahead—
not in full, but just enough to know that life was about to shift…
that He was already doing something new.

I’m still in the middle of that “new thing.”

God has been, and continues to be, faithful…
but this new season, at least for now, is still unfolding. Still being formed.

Much has changed… even me.
And for that, I am deeply grateful.

Maybe next time I’m here, I’ll share more about what that “new thing” looks like.

For now… I’m holding onto His Word, faithfully.

May His Word be with you always

- Jivean, Of Paper and Light

Jivean Martinez

Do You Not Perceive It?

Born of Dust and Design