My wife and I had a wonderful gathering at our home the day after Christmas. We had relatives, children, and grandchildren packed into our small house; it was wonderful.
While my sister and brother-in-law conversed about things that I mostly understood, my adult kids spoke some strange language that didn’t seem to be English, and my grandkids, well, their hugs, communicated much more than their talk about games and some Australian cartoon called Bluey.
During the height of the evening’s conversations, the din swept me into a corner of my heart that seldom surfaces in my consciousness. I saw with my heart the wonder of “new” woven by the mixed conversations among the old, the young, and the ‘littles.’ I could see love creating a new, warm tapestry of joy that blanketed all of us. Eventually, as din declined, the tapestry evaporated, but the joy remained, tucked away in each of our hearts.
How staggering it must have been for Mary, the mother of Jesus, when “The angel replied, ‘The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. So the baby to be born will be holy, and he will be called the Son of God.‘ (Luke 1:35)”
Out of the newness of Christ’s virgin birth, a new thing was done. Jesus, the baby, was born, and He is holy and is called the Son of God, and He is the way to the newness of life for us (Romans 6:4).
God seems to love “new”. One of the last promises He gave us in the Scriptures is that someday, He will make a new heaven and a new earth (Revelation 21:1). So, as we prepare to face this new year of 2023 – New Year’s Eve is my oldest son’s favorite holiday- let’s receive God’s joy of “new.” We don’t know what is in store for us, but we do know that God’s will shall prevail.
Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay
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