Old Things and New – 2021

My mother and I love pepper sauce. She recently made some and put it in an old coffee jar. In an unused bottle I poured some apple cider vinegar. On a window sill stands what used to be an old bucket. Now it’s a pretty flower pot. We all take old things, change its use, and make something new. God does the same thing to all who let Him. This thought has been on my mind with the passing of 2020 and the birth of 2021.

It’s been a worldwide difficult year. People have been filled with grief and loss: some from covid-19, others from financial ruin, still others from weather disaster. Disappointment and lost hope filled our minds and hearts in areas of health concerns, political upheaval, riot and hatred, financial insecurity, and the vast unknown yet to be displayed in 2021.

Is there help? Oh, yes. Our heavenly Father longs for us to allow Him to take what is old and make it new. He can empty our sorrow and replace it with comfort. He can take mind filled with turmoil and replenish with hope. He can take our fears of the unknown and remind us that when we get to tomorrow, He is already there, waiting to be our everything to get us through anything. He offers fresh peace, joy, and hope; not some of the time, but all of the time. Whatever grief and dismay came to you in 2020, I hope you give God a chance in 2021. In the words of King George VI during a Christmas Day broadcast in 1939, “I said to the man who stood at the Gate of the Year, ‘Give me a light that I may tread safely into the unknown”, and he replied, ‘Go out into the darkness and put your hand into the Hand of God. That shall be to you better than light, and safer than a known way.'”

“Therefore, if any man be in Christ, he is a new creation: old things are passed away; behold, all things have become new.” II Corinthians KJV

Happy New Year!