Here’s Something New

Here are some new things you can buy this year:

• A baby mop. You don’t mop your baby with it; your baby becomes the mop. It’s a baby onesie complete with mop bristles. Wherever she crawls, scoots or rolls, she leaves a trail of lemon-scented awesomeness.
• Then there’s the Dogbrella. It’s an umbrella attached to a harness for that pooch who has everything and likes to stay dry.
• You can also buy earpieces that can translate a foreign language in real time, a hamster-powered paper shredder, and air nozzle caps for your car tires that will inform your smartphone when the tire pressure is too low.
• Last but not least, there’s Kobi, the all-season garden robot. With the help of a digital map and GPS, he mows your lawn, rakes and mulches your leaves, even connects to weather reports to clear your driveway and sidewalk of snow. You could likely buy a Dogbrella to protect him should it rain.

New stuff. As we enter a new year, I’ve been thinking about how many of God’s promises have the word “new” in them. Here are just three:

1. God’s mercies are new each morning. Lamentations 3 says, “Because of the Lord’s great love we are not consumed, for His compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is Your faithfulness.” 365 times this year, you will wake to discover that God’s love hasn’t run out, His mercies haven’t dried up. They’re new every morning.
2. God is doing a new thing today. This is the key to help us cease griping and embrace an attitude of gratitude. Isaiah 43 says, “Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past. See, I am doing a new thing!… I am making a way in the wilderness and streams in the desert.” God is not the “I was,” but the “I am.” He is active today, doing a new thing in others, and in you. Paul said we should, “Forget what is behind and strain toward what is ahead, press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called us heavenward in Christ Jesus.”
3. He will make all things new. This promise from Revelation 21 is the greatest news amid hardship, sickness, and uncertainty. A day is coming when there will be no more death certificates, no more Kleenex, no more Band-aids, crutches or heart monitors. God bless you, my friend, as you face this New Year. Let’s walk in the footsteps of Jesus.