A Fresh Start
On December 9, 1914, fire swept through the factories owned by Thomas Edison in West Orange, New Jersey. The damage totaled millions of dollars. Practically everything of Edison's was destroyed, including journals and records of works in progress.
Edison was not a young man at the time this happened. Many people sent condolences and notes of sympathy, expecting that this tragedy would prompt his retirement.
What was Thomas Edison's response? "I am 67, but I'm not too old to make a fresh start."
It's not too late for any of us to make a fresh start, either. It doesn't matter how old we are, where we have been, or what we have done. Neither does it matter how much we have lost in the fires of the past. Today is a new day, a fresh start is ours for the taking.
The point here is not about age. It's about change. It's about never losing the capacity to start a new chapter in your life, regardless of how the last chapter may have ended. The Scriptures are full of references to how "all things are made new" in Christ (2 Cor. 5:17), how God's mercies are "new every morning." (Lamentations 3:23) I'm thankful we serve a God who majors in new mercies, second chances and fresh starts.
Or listen to how the prophet Isaiah said it:
"Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past. See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it?" (Isaiah 43:18-19)
God is ready to do something new in your life, to give you a fresh start. He has forgotten the former things; you can too. The new thing is ready to spring up. Do you perceive it?
At the very least, the gospel on which we stand is about new beginnings and fresh starts and do-overs. God is gracious to us, and will not allow our failures and mistakes to be permanent. He has a way of turning our ashes into beauty when we begin again in Him.
My prayer for each of you this week is that you will know the freshness of God's grace in your life.