For a few years my family and lived in an old farmhouse down Chicken Road in middle Georgia. My sons frequently spent Saturday mornings outdoors doing yard work. Mowing, raking, burning the debris, picking up sticks the wind had ripped from the huge pecan tree in our front yard. Cutting back high weeds. It was dirty work.

Around noon I would call them in for lunch. While I prepared their food they headed for the shower.

I remember how different they looked after they had scrubbed away dirt and sweat; after they had shampooed and dried their hair; after they had put on clean clothes.

The cleaning up gave them a second chance on their Saturday.

That’s the way I see each new year. A second chance. A new beginning. A re-do.

We get another chance to fix what we broke the year before.

We get the opportunity to set new goals, plan new plans.

A chance to be more Christ-like, to be better parents, better spouses.

We get the opportunity to work toward being better friends, better employees or employers.

And a chance to step out into something new and challenging.

Isaiah 43 and 44 contain God’s words about Himself. He proclaims to Israel that He alone is God. He reminds them that He loves Israel and claims them for Himself. These two chapters are filled with God’s declarations that He created Israel and protects them. He will not forsake them forever. I believe that these verses, as every word in God’s Word, are intended for us Christians also. God’s Word is always truel

In 43:19 God says:

            Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past. See, I am doing a new thing! Now it                  springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the wilderness and streams in                  the wasteland.

When each new year rolls around I see it as God doing a new thing in my life. God giving me a chance to start over with my goals and plans. With my relationships. With my ministry to others.

January – a time to shower in God’s Word, to clean off the grime of last year, to seek forgiveness for the past and grace for the future.

I pray that in 2020 you and I will seize the opportunity to try again, to do a new thing, or to seek new ways to do the old thing God is calling us to do.