Clean Slate

There is always something inviting about venturing into a new year.  Perhaps it is the idea of a fresh start that compels many of us to whole-heartedly welcome in another year.  Based on the number of people who make New Year’s resolutions, I assume that many will enter the start of a new year with good intentions, determination, and high hopes.  We eagerly embrace the idea of a clean slate.  In fact, I would venture to say that this is an innate longing and an inherent part of being human.

We desire restoration and newness since we are fallen beings living in a fallen world.  Unfortunately the start of a New Year or other new beginnings, like a move or new job, can sometimes give us a false sense of a new beginning.  There is only one way to experience true restoration, and that is through the forgiveness offered to us through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ on the cross.  All other ways of trying to experience restoration in our lives are a masquerade of true renewal.  May our attention this year focus on Jesus Christ, the one who can offer true restoration and a clean slate!  May we meditate and reflect on the familiar passage of 2 Corinthians 5:17-19.   “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come! All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting men’s sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation.”