Call me obsessive compulsive, but I like to celebrate the new.
I remember the distinct smell of new pencils in first grade. Or the smell of new erasers (“Pink Pearl” was the brand to buy).
Over the years, I've always loved the sheen on a new book cover—and have gone to great lengths to preserve my books. I want the covers to look new. Forever.
A particular peeve of my mine is when I loan someone a magazine or book and they bend back the cover on itself. Or bend page corners as a book mark.
We once bought a new storm door that was installed with its protective plastic shrink wrap. It looked so nice and the plastic actually seemed to be keeping the door clean, so we (I) decided to leave it on. A month passed. A year. Then another.
When the plastic had grown gray collecting dust and dirt, I was asked (by a very patient wife) to please remove it. But season after season of heat and humidity had made a glue (or more accurately, goo) out of the thing. It took hours of scraping with a heat gun to finally clean it all off.
I look at a new life—our granddaughter, Lucy's, for example—and I ponder the fact that apart from typical one-year-old tantrums, her soul is essentially “clean and shiny.” New, if you will.
But then there are the rest of us. With some miles on us. Some dirt on us. Some I'm-not-new-anymore all over us. We're covered in gray guilt we cannot scrape off. Inside, we long for a clean slate. A new slate, even.
Did you know it's yours for the asking?
The Bible says, “If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away. Behold, the new has come” (2 Corinthians 5:17).
Here we are at the start of a new year. Why not get that new life Jesus offers for yourself? If you've got questions, talk to a friend now at 888-NEED-HIM. And if you've already received Christ, let's celebrate that through His forgiveness we are made new. Every day.