I saw something the other day flash up on my facebook page. It was a homemade meme sent because I follow a particular ministry (rethinking this one). I don’t remember the exact words, but it said something like, that the new year wasn’t new and it was just another day…there was nothing new..you know the drill. It has spurred me on to take a look at the word “new” in the Word for 2017. My first thought was that God’s grace is new every morning. Praise Jesus!
I think in a way the “new” year gives us an opportunity to rethink the last year and go over the good, the bad and the ugly. It gives us opportunity to also think ahead to the future and hope and dream and even make resolutions if that is what you like to do.
What I find each year is that the last year went faster than ever and often just carried me along with it. You know what I’m saying, right? Work, clean, sleep, eat, work, clean, eat sleep. When I’m tired I’m not purposeful. I think living a purposeful life is wonderful. I haven’t felt like I could do that…ever really…as a young mom I was carried from one emergency to another as we dealt with situation after situation with child after child. It sounds horrific when I put it like that but it was a blessed time for me. There was much laughter and even though each child remembers their childhood differently so far as the good, the bad and the ugly…I will always cherish those years. Now, as an almost empty nester…I find myself working a full-time job…and with my health struggles having very little time to be purposeful at all.It’s probably one of my most prevelant disappointments in myself is that I run out of umph before I should.
I digress. “New” is something I have always looked forward to. As the seventh child I had a lot of “old” new things. But Christmas, Easter, birthday and the first day of school I could count on something new. I remember picking out some pretty awful outfits for the first day of school (orange one year and hot pink another)…some day I’ll get brave enough to find the pictures and attach them for you. 
I think each of us in our own way long for something new…not necessarily for material things, but a new love, a new relationship, a new true friend, a new page, a new chapter, something different from the humdrum of life that makes you want to scream running from it so often.
Genesis 27:28 seems to be a blessing…kind of like something you’d pull out of a Chinese proverb or something…only grander because it’s God’s wisdom and now ours. It’s part of Isaac’s blessing to Jacob (which he stole from Esau I may add) “May God give you heaven’s dew and earth’s richness— an abundance of grain and new wine.” I just looked up why “new wine” is so important here. It speaks of wine that is from that year…sweet wine. He’s saying may you always have enough so you don’t have to drink old wine and grain from years past. I like that. May we all have enough…he speaks of abundance here…maybe to share with others. That’s a wonderful blessing and hope for your child…for everyone. May you always have enough, son…daughter…and have enough to share with others in need.
What a wonderful “new” year that would be. To not just have plenty to spend on me and mine…but to have enough and then share with others. May that be your new “new” this year as well.
Deep Beneath The Mask 