All Things Made New
I had noticed how dusty it was. It looked like a lot of kids were enjoying the sidewalk chalk that our PTO had supplied during recess. There were drawings of teachers and rainbows. Lots of writing practice (that they didn’t even know was writing practice). But all the lines were getting blurry. The chalk had been there for a while and it was fading.
Fast forward a day or two to when I took this picture from a window above the same sidewalk.
We had gotten a little rain and I noticed something about that faded, dusty sidewalk chalk. A little bit of water had made it bright and fresh again. It was old, but had become new.
That made me think of the verse in the Bible that talks about God making all things new again: “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new” (1 Cor. 5:17, NKJV). It made me think about those times when my life feels a little dried up and dusty and how renewing my commitment to Christ can reenergize my days and add color to my life.
As I continued thinking, I was concerned that my analogy was flawed. After all, I realize that you can only take this application so far. One of the benefits of sidewalk chalk is that enough rain washes it completely away and you get to start again with a new canvas.
And then, it hit me. As a baptized believer in Christ, I have already started over with the blank canvas and when my Christianity is “fading,” I need to remember the words of 1 John 1:7 which reads, “But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin” (ESV). I need to remember my contact with the blood of Jesus that I accessed through the waters of baptism. I don’t need to be rewashed completely, just renewed.
But for those outside Christ, that same water and blood can offer them the blank canvas where they can begin to enjoy the life that Jesus came to give us (John 10:10). Romans 6:3-4 reads, “Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.”
Either way, it is only God who can make all things new … through His word, His Son, and His power.
“And he who was seated on the throne said, ‘Behold, I am making all things new.’” Revelation 21:5a
AUTHOR: Amber Tatum
