Articles
The Joy of a Fresh Beginning
One day as I was putting on a shirt I realized had failed to match the right buttons with the right holes. That reminded me of what I heard a speaker say one time: If you start off buttoning wrong, there’s no way to make it right except to start all over.
And of course, he wasn’t just talking about buttoning! Whenever we realize we’ve taken a wrong turn in driving, do we think, “Oh well, I’ve already gone this far. I might as well keep going”?
Imagine a different ending to the story of the Prodigal Son in Luke 15. Having hit bottom in the far country after wasting his inheritance, hungry and alone, imagine if he had thought, “I have messed up so royally that going home is out of the question. I’ll just stay here and starve.”
The father’s joyful welcome when his son returns proves that indeed there is an opportunity to start over in our relationship with God. Even though we have messed up royally, God gives us a royal welcome if we respond in humility, repentance, and obedience to His will.
Many years ago I saw a movie about Thomas Edison. After he had invented the light bulb, a young assistant was carrying it and let it slip and it broke! Edison redid his work, but then entrusted the replacement bulb to the same young man. Whether that’s historical I don’t know, but it’s a wonderful illustration of grace.
Whenever we turn to Christ for healing, our sin is removed by His blood. We then enjoy a status we’ve never had before. We are certainly no longer the innocent children we once had been. Nor are we the lost sinners we were before coming to Christ. Our past is forgiven, we are given the Holy Spirit to dwell within us, we become members of the household of God and heirs of eternal life (Acts 2:38; Romans 8:16-17; Ephesians 2:1-7; Titus 3:3-7).
“Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come” (2 Corinthians 5:17 NASB).
How good it is to start all over—reborn, renewed, redeemed!
