“See I am making all things new”
Those words come from the Book of Wisdom. The natural world shows forth God’s power to restore and renew. Autumn by autumn the leaves fall from the trees. “In the eyes of the foolish they seem to have died.” But in next to no time new buds appear and in the Spring nothing can hold back the new life. Day by day the sun goes down and darkness falls. The day “Seems to have died.” But come the morning, the cycle begins again.
New day, new life.
Everyday the same is true of ourselves. At the end of the day we fall into bed. Activity ceases – Sleep takes over us like a mini-death. But in a matter of hours we bounce back;
“Through sleep and darkness safely brought,
Restored to life and power and thought.”
Belief in God opens the door to perceptions of his power and glory. God, who is love, cannot be other than loving. And love has a special power to make things new. We know the truth of that through our own experience. People walking through illness can be brought into the light through the patient love of those who care for them. People who have lost their self-esteem through what they perceive as failure can be built up into newness of life by others who entrust them lovingly with their confidence. People who find assurance in the experience of loving and being loved becomes, in effect, a new person.
At this season of the year we remember God’s Saints – men and women who, believing in God, have caught a glimpse of his glory and reflected it into the world by their deeds, their words, their life-style.
Not many people in the northern hemisphere welcome November with open arms. It is the first month of Winter. Autumn mists give way to fog dirty and dangerous. The sun loses its warmth and there’s an all pervading dampness. But the month has its compensations.
The Festival of All Saints and All Souls which we are celebrating in church on Sunday 3rd November provides an opportunity for us to say “Thank You” for the people in Christian history down through the ages – people who found new life in responding to the saving work of Jesus Christ.
This month also come the Fireworks, Rockets, Catherine Wheels, Sparklers, Cascades of Stars, Roman Candles burning brightly, brightness which illuminates the smiling faces of those we love.
The November sky is dark but it can be brightened by the Fireworks.
The gloom of a sinful world is dispelled by saints made new. “See – I am making all things new.”
With every Blessing
Peter