“Behold, I am making all things new.” Revelation 21:5

Forever…

Summer stretched forever when I was 6 years old…

Unending fields of green grass…

Unknowable heights of blue sky…

Sprays of water from cannonball dives into the local swimming pool.

Now, summer vanishes in a blink.

It doesn’t make sense.

Summer has the same number of days…

The same number of sunrises and sunsets…

The same number of warm, quiet evenings spent listening to sounds of cicadas and crickets…

Watching the sun sink slowly below the horizon.

Why does summer pass so quickly now?

A scientist tried to explain…

It takes longer, he says, for our brain to store memories about new things…

So time slows down when we experience something new.

Everything is new when you are 6 years-old.

I’m now at an age when slowing down time seems like a pretty good idea.

If new experiences slow down time…

Maybe I should travel the world nonstop…

Change jobs every month…

Move into a new house every year…

Or…

Maybe God offers a better alternative…

A better way to make all things new …

 He tells us…

…if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.  2 Corinthians 5:17

God tells us how to make all things new …

…as the elect of God, holy and beloved, put on tender mercies, kindness, humility, meekness, longsuffering; bearing with one another, and forgiving one another, if anyone has a complaint against another; even as Christ forgave you, so you also must do.  Colossians 3:12-13

When we accept God’s grace…

When we clothe ourselves in mercy, kindness, humility, meekness and forgiveness…

Then, whatever we do…

Wherever we go…

We take the newness of a life in Christ with us…

Until one day…

We find ourselves living each new moment with God…

Until one day…

Time dissolves into eternity…

“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.  John 3:16 

Eternity…

Where the grace of God makes every moment and all things new …

When we’ve been there ten thousand years,
Bright shining as the sun,
We’ve no less days to sing God’s praise
Than when we’d first begun.

 

Note: a first version of this post appeared in September 2015