Becoming new
As I sit at the computer typing today, it just happens to be Groundhog Day. It was shown on the news today that Phil saw his shadow so we have six more weeks of winter. Regardless of what the groundhog did, spring will be about six weeks away. This winter has been so different from last winter. Last year we had heavy snows and cold temperatures. This year it is hard to believe it is even February. It feels like spring time lately. The yard at the parsonage is starting to get some green in it. Yesterday, I saw a man trimming his lawn with a weed eater. We may not be quite done with winter, but there is no doubt spring is on its way.
We are in that in between time when the earth transitions from the deadness of winter to the life of spring. We go through those times in our lives as well. Sometimes our hearts become hardened and we become spiritually dead. We sometimes chase after our own desires and ambitions and forget what God desires for us and from us. All the while God is calling to us to come back, you are heading for heart ache and pain. Then when things go wrong, we wonder how God could have allowed things to get so out of control. Some- times we even blame God for the messes we have caused ourselves.
In Genesis, God creates the universe and all that is in it. There is a lot to the universe that has not even been discovered yet. God created for six days and rested on the seventh. God did not stop God’s work in Genesis, God is still creating even today. In 2 Corinthians 5:17 it is written: “So if anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation: everything old has passed away; see everything has become new.”
Fortunately for us, God is a God of creation, renewal and restoration. God does not give up on us. God will restore us, renew us and make us a brand new creation. That will be a new creation without blemish, without all the baggage that we as humans so often carry around. It all begins with being in Christ.
••• Editor’s note: Brian Timmons is the pastor of Pea Ridge and Brightwater Methodist Churches. He can be contacted at 925-0167 or by e-mail at pastortimmons@yahoo.com.