necessary new

 Monday morning after resurrection Sunday… I wonder what this day was like 2000 years ago?  The word was spreading, some had seen him, others could not possibly believe it, but Jesus of Nazareth was alive!  I imagine this Monday— as the hours passed and more and more people touched his hands and heard his voice— was one of unmatched celebration, of joy too grand for words, of a reality nobody knew how to live in quite yet other than to fall on their knees…  because Jesus, he really is Emmanuel, he really is the King of all Kings, and he really did all He said he would do.  He loved his children enough to make all things new. 

There has not been a more beautiful Monday in all of history.

And this is our Jesus today, as much as 2000 years ago.  He shows up in our lives when we are in desperate need of new.  All too often I live like it is still Friday, as if darkness overwhelms light in the world, as if I have more to be anxious about than grateful for.  But hope is stronger and faith is greater than anything.  Friday passed.  The disciples waited.  Sunday came.  And Monday followed.  If God can redeem death, he can redeem me.  He can make my heart new.  He can make my eyes new.  He can make my words new.  He still loves his children enough to make all things new.  And I desperately need new.  Don’t we all?

It will come.  Oswald Chambers writes that, “The Holy Spirit is the deity of God who continues to apply the power of the atonement by the Cross of Christ to our lives.  Thank God for the glorious and majestic truth that His Spirit can work the very nature of Jesus into us…”

Thank God for new, because we can’t stay where we are, we were made for so much more.

After a long Northwest winter, the freesia still blooms and smells like Heaven.  But we have to wait through winter to see the colors of spring.  I know in life that the Fridays will come and the Saturdays will be awful, but I believe too that Sunday always comes and Mondays always follow.  For purposes so much greater than ourselves, in ways so much more elaborate and creative than we could ever think up on our own, we are being made new.  And like the people who saw Jesus on Monday, I am still learning how to live in this reality.  New but not perfect.  Free and yet sinful.  Faithful but anxious.  Loved by a gracious God and always battling discontent.  And still, his mercies are new every morning, because every morning, we find again that we need them.

Today is new, and I am so, so grateful.