New Life
“…… in order that just as Christ was raised
from the dead, we too may live a new life.”
Reading and talking about something as compared to the reality of it can often produce two very different ideas in our minds and vastly different results in our experience. Take for example skiing: I can still remember my friends filling me in on how to ski the first time I tried it, explaining getting on and off the lifts, the technique for turning and much more. Their instruction left me pretty confident as I headed out but putting their words into practice was a little bit of problem as reflected by my skiing out of control through a class of beginners before hitting the retaining fence behind them. In retrospect, talking about the how-to’s of skiing did not do the experience the least bit of justice.
The same thing can happen when we talk about the new life that the Lord has promised to those who yield their lives to him: reading about it in the book of Romans might paint the picture in one persons’ mind of someone who has been given a fresh start and a second chance in life through the mercy and grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. To another, they might focus on the new relationship with the Lord that is possible as they experience the Lord’s forgiveness and restoration. But, as so many of us can attest to, the reality of the new life promised by the Lord is so incredible as to be beyond anything our minds can dream or imagine.
That truth never hit home so much as last night when I got to hold our newest granddaughter, Maya Grace, all 6 lbs and 3 oz of her, and to try to fathom the gift of a new life, so pure and precious and awe inspiring that you are left at a loss for words. The experience made me ask “Is this what you had in store for us Lord? Is this what new life is supposed to be like Lord, a freshness that defies description, an excitement that cannot be suppressed, a joy, a pure joy that leaves us speechless?” The answer came back so quickly I almost wasn’t ready, a quote from part of a verse in Peter: “As newborn babes….” I had my answer; God has purposed so much more for us as we walk in newness of life, a fresh start and more, a joy unspeakable and more, and a restoration and making of all things new that only God could do.
My prayer is that the Lord will use the birth of little Maya Grace to encourage each of us to look to the Lord with a new hope and expectation that we would each experience new life as God truly intended. For all that God has done and for all that lies ahead, we can only stop and say ‘Thank you Lord’.
God Bless
Pastor Joe
Gateway Church
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