Happy New Year

"You Must Be Born Again" (John 3:16)

  I admit to having a love hate relationship with snow. When I am at home, or looking out the window of my office,a s I am now, it is very beautiful. I love watching it. I admit the absence of snow last year made winter seem, well, anticlimactic. Asa  child I loved running in the snow, diving into it, making forts and snowballs.

  Of course that's because my parents drove me everywhere and my dad shoveled the snow.  Once that became my job, snow became less a blessing and more of a curse. Now I have to go out in the cold, shovel the drive way, walk the dog, try to drive on slippery snowy slushy roads.  As my son and I were shoveling the driveway out the other day, we were talking about how fleeting the beauty of snow is.  I am proud to have passed on my legacy to him, as well as my snow shovel.

  There is one thing I do still love about snow.  I love how it overs everything in purity. It doesn't matter what toys the kids or pets have left in the yard. Or how many branches are in the backyard. It doesn't even matter if there are some leaves I never got to raking up. Once the snow falls everything is clean, beautiful and pure. Of course there is only one problem with that. Once the snow melts the debris is still there. The toys, branches and leaves haven't gone away. They've only been covered up.

  Often that's how we treat the debris in our lives. That debris could be sin. Or a wrong done to us. It could be resentment, or bitterness. And we act as if we cover it up it will be gone. If we act like everything is OK, maybe it is. If no one discovers my sin, maybe it didn't happen. Or at the very least, I got away with it.

  It never quite works out that way does it. Sin, and hurt, and resentment have away of rising to the surface. Just because we cover up the debris in our lives, doesn't make it go away.  It will always resurface. The only we to keep this from happening is to get rid of the debris.

  That's why, as we begin a new year, I hope you will keep the verse at the top of the page close to your heart.  That's the newness Jesus offers. When we invite Him into our lives we are Born Again. Hear that, please. Not just given a "do over" or another chance. But actually made clean.  All the debris in our lives can be swept away. We can be new.  be forewarned, nowhere does Jesus promise that this is easy, only that it's possible with Him.

  I pray that this New Year brings you a New Hope in the love of Jesus Christ. May you be made new and the debris cleaned from your life.  From behalf of all of us at Trinity, we wish you a most Blessed, and Happy New Year.

In Christ,
Rev. Dr. Brian Jones <><