MAKE A NEW YOU THIS NEW YEAR

I’m not the kind of gal who gets giddy over button boxes and thread spools. 

Still, my creative friends invite me on their craft adventures. The results stay the same no matter how hard I try to be crafty. Their projects are complete before my glue gun warms up.

One year, I quit trying. Instead of returning to the table, I wept in the corner.

But it wasn’t a challenging craft that caused me to come unglued. Tears poured because I couldn’t assemble the mismatched scraps and missing pieces of life.

Even the best makers on earth can’t create what we need most.

There are problems we can’t unravel, stitches we can’t straighten, and stains we can’t remove.

Like the apostle John in the book of Revelations, we fall face down in Heaven’s throne room, weeping at the impossible gap between the majesty of a Holy God and the magnitude of our hopeless human condition.

We can’t manufacture peace that passes all understanding. We can’t spark light in the darkness. We can’t replace a heart of stone with a heart of flesh. We can’t resurrect stone-cold souls or situations.

We can’t, but our Creator God, the Maker of Heaven and Earth, can. What we lack, He graciously gives.

God so loved the world that He gave His only Son, Jesus.

Through Jesus, our impossible becomes possible. Through Christ’s death and resurrection, we receive life everlasting. 

When you finally say, “I can’t,” and lay all the torn fabric and frayed relationships down at His feet, Jesus will give you beauty for ashes. He will create a brand-new masterpiece.

The day I tearfully surrendered my glue gun was the day I held my first completed craft project.

My sweet friend Jan hugged me, took my hand, and walked me through each crafting station. I made a few choices, then watched as she took them and created something out of nothing. 

Awestruck, I set the new creation at her feet. “I don’t deserve this. YOU made it!” I said.

But she just smiled and handed it back. “It’s yours. Give it to your grandbabies.”

The best gifts to pass on to the next generation are the ones we don’t make ourselves.

So, let this be your only New Year’s resolution.

Resolve to bring all you are and all you have and lay it down before your miracle-working God every day.

Jesus makes all things new.

And the one sitting on the throne said, “See, I am making all things new!” 

Revelations 21:5