Tea Time for Your Soul logo


Order Debi Newman's paperback books and Kindle ebooks on Amazon


Select A Topic:

 

 

 

Dr. Newman Amazon books
Back to Main Topics Page | Amazon Author Page | Subscribe to Emails | Report Broken Link | Site Map | Home


He Will Make All Things New!

I just love a New Year. It seems to bring with it a sense of hope that everything that went wrong in the year before no longer exists, and I can move forward fresh and clean with no mistakes, mishaps or misfortunes.

Is it possible to become so eager for something new that I discard somethingvaluable? I began to question this after what I did yesterday. For months anugly calendar hung on the side of my refrigerator. It is not a calendar thatI keep important dates, rather one that offers reference to the time and placewhen I am in the kitchen. Last year, we forgot about this calendar and we endedup using the back page of the one from the year before. It wasn’t a solutionI particularly liked, but it did the job and I was not industrious enough todo anything else about it.

When December 31st arrived I made a decision. That calendar was coming down.I would at least replace it with something that changed each month. I pulledit off my refrigerator and looked over its garden scenes from 2005 noting howbeautiful they were and wondered why I didn’t appreciate it more. Wishingfor a calendar like that old one, I grabbed one that came in the mail for freeand put it up, prepared for January 1, 2007.

On New Year’s morning my husband noticed that I was ahead of the game for2007 and had already changed the calendar. He asked, What did you do withthe calendar that was here? I told him I threw it away the day before. That’swhen he explained that he had bought a 2007 calendar months ago that startedwith the remaining months of 2006. I had thrown away a brand new 2007 calendarfilled with garden scenes he picked out just for me.

We went outside to the trash bin and searched out that calendar. It was bentand crumbled, but salvageable to use for this New Year. Presently it is beingpressed under some heavy books, but eventually I will pull it out and hang iton my refrigerator. Its creases will remind me, not to throw out what was importantfrom the past.

God doesn’t throw out what is old to make it new. He didn’t destroythe world when Adam and Eve sinned. He didn’t completely destroy the worldwhen He was forced to begin anew with Noah and his family. He makes us new fromthe material we are before Him. Colossians 3:10 says, And have put on thenew self, which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its Creator. Weall want a new self for 2007, but remember that God will renew all that we haveexperienced, including, mistakes, mishaps and misfortunes. All we have experiencedhas the potential to be renewed, bringing us deeper into the knowledge of Godand closer to the image we bear of His likeness. God makes things new withoutdiscarding any parts of you. I like the way Eugene Peterson paraphrases Colossians1:3 in the Message. Now you’re dressed in a new wardrobe. Every itemof your new way of life is custom-made by the Creator, with his label on it. Enjoythe process of being renewed in the coming year!

 

Respond to Dr. Newman's article


Copyright © 2001-2021. Deborah R. Newman. All Rights Reserved.

All material on this website is copyrighted. All Rights Reserved. No part of this publication (or article) may be reproduced without written permission.
Request permission to reprint an article.