God is with us...still

“If anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come; the old is gone, the new is here!” –

2 Corinthians 5:17

                “Christmas is over”.

I have heard that from a lot of people this past week. Some have said it with a sigh of relief and others have mumbled it with a twinge of sadness, like a friend that has gone away and won’t be seen for a whole year. Some of you may have had your tree taken down and decorations packed up the evening of December 25, and others of you may be waiting as long as possible to un-decorate.

The reality is that Christmas isn’t over.

Technically we are still in what is called “Christmastide” (yes, those 12 days of Christmas from the song are a real thing from Christmas through Epiphany, which is January 6). I know that the season of Christmas is ending, and that eventually all of the decorations will have to be put away, but that whole “Emmanuel—God with us” idea doesn’t get packed away with the stockings and tree skirt. God is not in the manger anymore, God is in us.

God is with us, still.

Even when we might think Christmas is “over”.

And here we are into a new year. But with the new year comes many of the same old things. The same debt, the same worries, the same illness, the same doubts, the same addictions, the same concerns. There is no New Year Resolution big enough for these. So we focus on the things we think we can fix on our own. A Google search for this year’s top Resolutions has “Exercise” topping our wish list with 37% of Americans and then “losing weight” a close 2^nd with 32%. The reality is that many gyms bring in ‘temporary’ equipment for the month of January only. The reason for this is something that we all know all too well. Come February the resolutions are gone.

God is with us, still.

The new creation has come.  This means that we have been created new. But it’s not just a one-time thing that happened in the past. It can be a daily newness in life. A daily refreshing from the presence of God with us. A daily recreating of who we are in Christ. A daily resolution that we are not trying to achieve with our own good intentions, but placing in the capable hands of Jesus.

The old is gone. This means that our old habits, old selfishness, old worries, old addictions, old regrets, old doubts can be gone with our old self. This takes a daily focus on the newness in us so that the oldness doesn’t slip back in.

My kids used to love to play in the mud. And when they did they would get really muddy, cause that’s just what happens when you play in the mud. Not that playing in the mud is a bad thing, I am just using it here metaphorically. Anyway, their clothes would be muddy, their shoes would be muddy, they would just be a muddy mess. When I got them washed off and cleaned up I wouldn’t put them back in those muddy clothes, I would dress them in clean clothes, and wash those muddy clothes (or throw them away—but don’t tell Heather I ever did that). The same is true for us. That oldness in our lives shouldn’t be something that we keep putting back on every day. If we are really made new in Christ, then we should be wearing new clean clothes, not the same old dirty stuff. There is a beautiful picture of baptism there also. The washing away of the old under the water and the rising up of the new clean person.

The new is here!

I think we can live a fresh new life in Christ Jesus. But I think it’s really hard to try to do that alone. I don’t advocate New Year Resolutions. If you want to read the Bible in 2017 that’s great! But you don’t need a New Year Resolution to do that. Just do it. But I do think that being part of a church is important to this new life, to help keep the newness in the oldness out. So if you’re not part of a church family to help you in this new 2017, then check out the list of local churches that is listed in this paper. There really are people here that want to help you, and there are people here that need to be helped by you. We’re all in this together.

So, Happy New Year! Enjoy it. Live it. Love it. And maybe even go play in the mud…just don’t put those muddy clothes back on ;)