New Life!

I have a granddaughter and it is bringing me immense joy. Although, I would like to establish now that I am an exceedingly young granny and still go bodyboarding and kayaking and dancing and am not yet ready to embrace knitting and dentures and Countryfile. It is excellent being a Granny, I get congratulated for someone else’s labour.

It is extraordinary holding a brand-new person. Sheer wonder all round for us and for the baby. Eyes opening to take their first sight of colour, seeing a smile for the first time.

Jesus said, “You must be born again!”

If you are like me, you can hardly dare believe that God truly offers to make you new. That word “new” breaks apart every constraining structure, every fear that we are stuck and that the future is a closed possibility. Paul says, “if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!” (2 Cor 5:17)

Last week, I was speaking in a prison, aware of how we all trail our pasts behind us. It could seem that the past closes off the future. But it is in our present that God makes all new. He offers a new life - one where the ending is guaranteed eternal joy. He gives us new clean hearts. He gives us new hope in place of fear and bitterness. Like my granddaughter, we see in a new way, given spiritual eyes to see the loving face of God.

This new birth is central to the gospel. It is no accident that the great revivals under Wesley and Moody and Billy Graham all preached new birth in Jesus.

What about for those of us who’ve been on the road as Christians for a while? Maybe there is a sense of having moved beyond this and maybe even some cynicism that despite a supposed new birth, famous Christians have still let themselves and everyone else down.

It is a serious mistake to think we can ever move beyond this teaching that we need to be born again. It was never supposed to be a one-off. Daily we are to live as new creations, as dependent on God as my granddaughter is on her parents.

And every day, we are to know that God holds us more safely and tenderly than any parent holds their precious child. The one who gave us new life wants to nurture us even more fiercely than any mother.

After our loss, the gift of a granddaughter is a beautiful reminder that God always brings new life. Wherever you are and whatever you are facing, may you know that new life is his promise for you.