Happy New Year!!
I just love celebrating the New Year!
Even though it is just the difference between Thursday and Friday this year, it also is a time to start over. To try again. To set goals and try to achieve them once more.
I remember celebrating with my dad's whole family when I was just a child. One year my cousin made homemade fortune cookies for the event. Almost everyone said they wanted to lose weight, but I think there were other resolutions left unsaid because they were the more serious ones. Like working on marriages, trying for greater success at work, or other important matters. It's about adopting a new attitude. Leaving whatever happened in the past 365 days behind us, opening a brand-new calendar and beginning again.
I love The Sandlot, as you may already know. In the movie, the boys yell, "Do over!" when things haven't gone quite right and they need to start their game back at square one. All of them understand this. They virtually erase what just happened and give everyone a clean start. I love that! How many times in life (or every day) do I wish I could shout, "Do over!" and undo something I regret I did?
This also reminds me of what Jesus has done for the whole world. No matter what we have done in the past year or our entire lives, we can have a do over! When we say, "God, I'm a sinner and I know I messed up. Please forgive me for the wrong things I've done. I believe you paid the price for my sins when you died on the cross."
And then - just like that - our sins are swept away in God's endless ocean of forgiveness. We cry, "Do over!" and God says, "Okay!"
The sins of the past, today, and all those in the future are forgiven.
We are given freedom to celebrate a new life, a new chance. Hope and freedom, and joy no matter what happens in life. These are treasures and tools for us to use in this adventure with our Creator.
Isn't God's grace amazing?
Happy New Year, everyone!
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