New Again

It is the last week of 2022. Of course, it is hard not to think about the past year and what may be in store for the coming year. It’s a fun opportunity to make your top ten lists or create a vision board for the upcoming year. It can also be an emotional time as you peruse over the course of the year, remembering hardships, challenges, lost relationships, and any who have died. We make a big deal over this particular moment in time, when we change the numbers on our checks (does anyone write checks anymore?) and correspondence. However, New Year’s Eve and Day are not merely moments, they are rites of passage. We have made it through another year, often marking it with cheers and celebrations, sleeping in, and an overabundance of resolutions for the new year.

Culturally, we save all of this reflection for this day or week, not thinking much about it any other times of the year. However, as Christians, we can mark each moment of old to new with every breath because we know that God not only holds all things, but is the source of time itself. All beginnings, all endings originate from our creator. No matter how often we mess up, fail our resolutions, move along too quickly to reflect, or overlook the gift of time, we are forgiven. We are made new again and again. We do not need to wait once a year to celebrate our transformation in Christ. In fact, we are called to celebrate and embrace this transformation with every second of our day and fiber of our being. Rather than live our lives bound by the limitations of time, we are called to live abundantly and freely in the grace that we are made new every second. So as a new year looms ahead, full of hopes, expectations, worries, or anxieties, remember that we do not need to wait to start over. We can breathe easy, breathe the breath of God, and know God is with us. Make that apology to yourself or another. Try again. Do it over. That’s what a life is all about. We have both arrived and are arriving in every moment. Let God hold you through it as we do it again and again. Peace be with you.