It has occurred to me that God had limiless options in creation. Instead of being born into families, He could have had us break off stalks like brussel sprouts. But then, how would we understand what He is trying to communicate to us by inviting us to call him Father?
Instead of color, He could have made the world all black and white and gray. It might have made the design of eyes a simpler task for Him.
Instead of seasons, He could have made endless summer or winter or spring or fall or some kind of season we cannot even conceive. Instead of day and night, He could have made us need no sleep and have no need for calendars or clocks--just one immeasurable, uninterupted existence until we die. It sounds awful to me. I think there is abundant evidence of the love and compassion of God in His creation.
The marking of time calls me to consider new beginnings. I have a theory: I think everything in God's visible creation is to help us understand the invisible, the unseen spiritual place where God dwells and to which He calls us. I think every new day, every new hour, every new season and year is to help us appreciate newness. How else would we understand the concept of newness?
As much as I love the invigorating posssiblities of a new year, my greater need is for a fresh start spiritually. Every day, every hour, as a Christian, I get a clean slate, a new birth! For some of us it is easy to carry around regrets and guilt and lose touch with a daily renewal. God has worked so hard to help us understand that we are so much more than forgiven--we are brand new in His eyes every minute! Every second is reason to rejoice in personal newness--more real than any newness we experience in this world!
So from now on we regard no one from a worldly point of view. Though we once regarded Christ in this way, we do so no longer. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!
II Corinthians 5:16-17
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