New

            Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come. (II Corinthians 5:17)

          The Lord’s lovingkindnesses indeed never cease, For His compassions never fail. They are new every morning; Great is Your faithfulness. (Lamentations 3:22-23)

          For I am confident of this very thing, that He who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus. (Philippians 1:6)

            It is a serious thing to live in a society of possible gods and goddesses, to remember that the dullest and most uninteresting person you can talk to may one day be a creature which, if you saw it now, you would be strongly tempted to worship, or else a horror and a corruption such as you now meet, if at all, only in a nightmare. All day long, we are, in some degree, helping each other to one or other of these destinations. It is in the light of these overwhelming possibilities, it is with the awe and the circumspection proper to them, that we should conduct all our dealing with one another, all friendships, all loves, all play, all politics. There are no ordinary people. You have never talked to a mere mortal. Nations, cultures, arts, civilizations—these are mortal, and their life is to ours as the life of a gnat. But it is immortals whom we joke with, work with, marry, snub, and exploit—immortal horrors or everlasting splendours. (C.S. Lewis The Weight of Glory, p. 45)

           Happy New Year, New Creature! I know it’s after “New Year’s” but it’s close. The verse from II Corinthians was BibleGateway.com’s verse for January 1, and it just seemed to me that we should consider the idea of newness. The fact that it is a new year is obvious. And most of us have probably read that verse in terms of salvation. When we become Christians, we become new creatures. That’s true, but as one of my favorite C.S. Lewis quotes points out, we are also new creatures with every decision and ever act. Just as you can’t step into the same river twice, because it changes between step one and step two. We change.

          Similarly, while God is the same yesterday, today, and forever, His mercies are new every morning. They may new every afternoon and evening, too. Because we change, they change (and yet, they are the same.) And all of this is because God is at work in us. We don’t make ourselves new any more than the river does.

          What this means is that we can have a “New Year’s Day” every day.