Spring Reminds Me...

"For the love of Christ controls us...if anyone is in Christ, he is a NEW creation. The old has passed away, behold, new things have come. Now all these things are from God who reconciled us to  Himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation."

           

           God is the source and the lifeblood of the universe, and He imprinted His especial thinking, feeling, creating image in humankind. But we chose rebellion. Every day we sin, scorning the Hand that made us and sustains us. So the world is broken, cracked from the core. And each human heart is a picture of the world: rotting away, aged with sin, destined to crumble. But there is a restoration. We can be made NEW.

      Because I have put my hope in the person and work of Jesus Christ, the gate to glory has been opened. Out goes my sin, in comes the joyful purpose I was made for. I am controlled by the love of Christ. As His love takes the place of my rebellion, I become it. I am new. Just like every spring. Today, the cracked old trees in the ditch behind my fence are wrapped in green. Out from the piles of leaf-skeletons sprout chutes, and the chutes blossom into color. New.

And someday, it won't be only hearts that are new. The grass won't only be green in the spring. 

Then I saw a NEW heaven and a NEW earth; for the first heaven and the first earth passed away, and there is no longer any sea.  And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, made ready as a bride adorned for her husband.  And I heard a loud voice from the throne, saying, “Behold, the tabernacle of God is among men, and He will dwell among them, and they shall be His people, and God Himself will be among them, and He will wipe away every tear from their eyes; and there will no longer be any death; there will no longer be any mourning, or crying, or pain; the first things have passed away.”

 And He who sits on the throne said, “Behold, I am making all things NEW.”

(Revelation 21:1-5)

When I read this passage, its promise brings me to life. All the weariness of living for the God the world hates, of battling sin and sacrificing myself, is worth it. Because there's a future beyond now, a bright and eternal future. I will live in a new world, lit by His face.