God’s Resolution (for any year)

New.

New Year.

New toys.

New gadgets to play with.

New things to do.

New things to tantalize.

But what happens to the old?

Thrown away, trashed, burned.

“But it’s broken, worn out, used up; it’s …it’s old!”

And into this world that prizes new things,

which has junk heaps for mountains,

come the words from the One who sits on the throne:

“Behold, I am making all things new.”

And that’s what He does, isn’t it?

He takes old things – like you and me,

things that are broken with sin,

things that are used in the ways of selfishness,

things that are tired because of vain pursuits…

And instead of holding us at arm’s length

with disdain – over the trash can – saying:

“It’s …it’s old!”

He says, “Behold, I am making all things new.”

And then He does it.

He takes on body to experience getting older.

He endures the older-than-time taunts of the one

who delights in destroying, in tearing apart.

He knows the age-old temptations to sin.

He hangs on old wood.

Why this throne-leaving to intimately know “old”?

So He can take old hearts and transform them.

So He can make old, sad hearts dance with new joy.

So He can make guilty hearts

know newness of starting over again.

So He can make all of us old sinners

(well-practiced in old paths of sin)

know new life.

So He can make all things new.

“And he who was seated on the throne said, ‘Behold, I am making all things new.’” Revelation 21:5