New

 Jesus makes all things new.  He mediates a new covenant.  He is the new Adam.  New.

Yesterday Im assuming that most of us got something new. Hopefully something that you wanted or needed and that put a smile on your face.  Because it's nice to get new things.  Especially if we have been feeling the pinch of late or are not pre-disposed to treating ourselves very often.    As we close the door on Christmas we look forward to more celebrations as 2022 turns into 2023.  I suspect that many of us will be quite happy to see a New Year arrive with all the hope that it might be less financially constrained and war-torn and downright depressing than the last one.   Jan 1st is an arbitrary line in the sand really - the sun will rise on that day just as any other and everything will be the same as it was the day before.  Except that we will think about it slightly differently.  Because Jan 1st will be day one of a New Year and somehow that seems significant.

We have had three new babies in our church over the past couple of months.  A new baby is really the epitome of newness.  Tiny and clean and sweet smelling and innocent and adorable.  We cannot help melting a little ( even those of us with the hardest of hearts) at the newness of a new life.  It wont be that long before the lambs are being born - and spring is heralded - and we celebrate newness all over again.  It seems to me that we need the possibility of newness in our lives.  We were not created to stand still, to gather dust, to repeat the same patterns.

As we look forward to the New Year let's invite the One who makes all things new to whisper to us about what it is He has planned for us in coming days.  Let's bring Him the old ways and the old habits and the old paths and offer them to Him to see if He wants to do a new thing with them.  Maybe take us in a new direction. Give us new vision. Speak a new word to us. Provide new opportunities.


And as we enjoy our new gadgets and clothes and books and boxes of chocolates let us never cease to marvel at the fact that all of this is made possible by a God who is continually speaking things into being and blessing us with every good gift.



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