Looking Forward

1 Mar 2020 • Articles

As I write this letter the sun is shining! What joy! It makes a change from the seemingly constant rain we’ve had in the past weeks. The daffodils in my garden will soon blossom and there is a real sense of new life and renewal. We are so lucky living in this country where we get four distinct seasons and we can watch the year move forward with each season bringing an anticipation of something different and fresh.

Yet we are as a country living in a time when we don’t know what might happen in the future. As I write this letter, we had just left the European Union and we are now on our own. What to expect? Who knows? We just have to wait and see and hope that our politicians will plan carefully and make the right decisions for us all. Can we anticipate that whatever happens will be different and fresh?

Jesus came to turn the tables on what people expected – he brought something different and fresh. He brought in a new age. “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, a new creation has come: the old has gone the new is here”. There it is! Right on the pages of the Bible in Paul’s letter to the Corinthians, we are told that we are being made new. We can choose to believe it and walk in that truth, or we can deny the power of God and His power to change even the deadest of hearts into hearts softened with love. He is making all things new.

“See, I will create new heavens and a new earth. The former things will not be remembered, nor will they come to mind” (Isaiah 65:17). Sometimes we just need to let go of the past and embrace the new season. Just like God does.

Jesus asks us to look forward not back, shouldn’t we do that? Take each season, each day as something new to look forward to, with anticipation. We don’t know what might be just around the corner but as Christians we believe – we know that God is with us no matter what life throws at us. He will be – he is there – beside us in all that we do so that we can go forward into a new day – a new season with hope and anticipation.

God bless.

Maggie Hatchard

Licensed Lay Reader