All Things New

I love springtime -- the lengthening days, the brightness of the sun, the birds and birdsong, the return of warmth to the air and color to the world.  Early flowers push themselves through the frozen earth, eager to add color to the still gray world around them.  Then suddenly spring bursts upon the world with light and warmth and flashes of vivid color.

The sky turns the brightest of blues.  Opening daffodils, tulips, even dandelions provide yellows and reds, purples and oranges to the mix as they open.  Trees blossom and bloom, each adding its unique contribution to the beauty around them.  Leaves return to the trees in myriad shades of green, each tree different from its neighbor.

It is as if the world were created anew and waits, clean and fresh scrubbed, to greet the future.

Spring marks a season of new beginnings.

Farmers and gardeners prepare fields and plots for planting, anticipating a bumper crop or an abundance of fresh vegetables and flowers.

Baseball teams assemble players and practice anticipating the new season, each hoping to make the playoffs and win the a championship -- even the World Series.

School children anticipate summer.  "This will be the best vacation yet!"

Seniors in high school and college anticipate spring commencement and freedom outside the halls of academia.

Springtime sweethearts may plan summer weddings.

Christians celebrate Easter and Jews Passover in remembrance of God's mighty acts to emancipate His people.  In each case, they celebrate a new beginning.

As human beings, we like new beginnings.

New beginnings represent opportunities to do new things, or do old things better.  New beginnings allow us to do things differently, to do things over, to make right things we've done wrong, and to repair things we've messed up.  New beginnings allow us to learn from the past and grow into the future.

Albert Einstein is quoted as saying "To continue to do the same things and expect different results is lunacy." New beginnings set us free from the lunacy.

It is written that old things are passed away.  None of us can change one jot or tittle of the past.

Old things go and new things take their places not only in springtime, not only at Easter or Passover, but daily and every morning.

Do you need a new beginning?

What is the very first thing you need to do to make it happen?

Why not do that one thing now?

And be happy.  It's a new beginning.