New or Old?

(Or maybe just used....)

2 Corinthians 5:17  "Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new."

Ezekiel 36:26  "A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you..."


We're wiping the slate clean and beginning a new year.  A fresh start.  A new beginning. God promises us that when we come to His son, Jesus, that we are made into a new creation.  This implies that we used to be one thing and now we are something else.  New - not the same.  So why is it that turning the page on the calendar doesn't seem so special?  Why does it feel like the same life with nothing new?  Why is it that some days I feel like the same old me?  Or better yet, I feel refurbished.

You know refurbished - it's the condition of an object that was sent to the manufacturer for a defect or flaw, allowing time for small repairs and then shipped back out to take its original place on the shelf in whatever store it called home.  It comes with all the nice packaging, the same warranty, and a discounted price.  It also comes with a stigma:  it's used.  It's been opened by someone else, handled, broken or found lacking and rejected, only to end up back in the same spot as a possible second choice.  A second choice that is only $40 cheaper than the real new item, so it's not really a deal.  It's just a wanna-be deal. 

That's how I feel some days.  I feel refurbished.  I have the same packaging on the outside, but everyone knows I used to be flawed.  Or that I still am in some areas.  I have value, but not as much as the next guy or gal.  I have usefulness, but in the back of someone's mind, those same reasons I needed 'refurbished' in the first place might come up again.  Who wants that???

Well, glory to God, His word says I've been re-made, re-deemed, re-stored, re-leased, re-solved, re-newed, re-warded, re-born, re-claimed, re-vived, re-conciled, and re-ceived - but nowhere does it say "refurbished!"

Growing up, we had an album by Agapeland that had the song "Bullfrogs and Butterflies" on it.  The lyrics are:  "Bullfrogs and butterflies have both been born again!"  THIS is how God sees us.  THIS is the "new creation" He is referring to.  Just as a tadpole cannot yet hop or the caterpillar yet fly, so we are handicapped, flawed, and lacking until that amazing day that we are transformed!  This was a beloved song as a child because I had an image of what God was doing and would continue to do in my life.



Today, there is a song out by Tenth Avenue North called "You Are More."

You are more than the choices that you've made.

You are more than the sum of your past mistakes.

You are more than the problems you create.

You've been remade. (emphasis mine)

This amazing song is for me, for us, for this time!  I am not a worthless, flawed being who is simply trying my best to get by.  I am a re-markable child of God Who sees me as a new being.  I am made in the image of God and re-made in the image of Jesus.  I am so thankful and blessed for the tadpoles and caterpillars of our world who live to testify of the power in the resurrection of Christ who makes us all bullfrogs and butterflies in His time!


Thoughts:
Have you struggled with this too?  What made you feel old or re-furbished?  What made the difference to help you feel new?

Do you know someone who walks through life feeling re-furbished instead of re-made?  What could you do to help him or her see themselves differently?

Take a few moments and thank God for His beautiful gift of transformation.  He had a plan from the beginning, to make you in His image and RE-MAKE you in the image of Christ, if you will let Him.  Re-commit to seeing yourself through His eyes and re-fuse to let the old past affect your new future.

I hope you'll embrace this new year with a new outlook - you are MORE!