The Search for All Things New

Early Saturday morning I was thinking about"newness." How we love to get something new. To build a new house. To buy a new car...and smell that "new car" odor.

I think this is why we like shopping at a mall (okay, women like shopping...at least a lot more than we men). This summer we're going to provide new school clothes for low-income kids in Abilene. We know how they'll feel wearing new clothing to school this fall.

It's exciting to see a new movie. Read a new book. Visit a new city. Susan and I plan to go to Chicago this August for our 25th anniversary. We've been researching this city on the internet and in a Chicago for Dummies book. We're excited about going there. Never been. It will all be new to us.

What is this longing inside us that continually craves for something new? Isn't it a longing, even if it is an unconscious longing, for that new heaven and new earth that the Lord promises those of us who believe in Christ?

And while we await that new heaven and new earth, how can we be content when we have to live with the fact that newness wears off so quickly and everything moves in the direction of decay? Maybe a realization that no matter how many new things we own or experience, they won't in themselves satisfy. And that this newness hunger that we all have is a signpost pointing us to heaven, where all things will be made new...forever.

Jim