May is a month of new beginnings. Usually, there is a slew of graduations to recognize, and this year, we have those in our congregation who will be celebrating the completion of a course of study of one sort or another. Their books will be shut, tears shed, goodbyes said, and their thoughts will turn toward what lies next in their future.
I’ve been thinking a lot about this idea of new beginnings. I think about how God is always shaping and transforming us, and how we often feel that shaping as a new beginning. There’s a hymn that keeps running through my head which holds this verse:
This is a day of new beginnings,
time to remember and move on, time to
believe what love is bringing,
laying to rest the pain that’s gone. *
As the author suggests, new beginnings are not always the result of happy celebrations. Many times they are born of pain and struggle, like the healing of a wound, the loss of a loved one, a decision to break free, or a conclusion reached with tremendous difficulty. I am reminded of the scriptural story in Jeremiah of the potter’s house (Jer. 18.1-6). The prophet was told by God to go on down to the potter’s house and await there for the Lord’s message. And so, he went, and there he watched as the potter worked on forming a pot on the wheel. But something went awry with that pot. Maybe there was an imperfection in the clay, or the wheel didn’t turn evenly. At any rate, the pot went to pot, and was spoiled. But even as the prophet watched, the potter gathered up the clay and threw it once again upon the wheel, forming it into a new, sturdy, useful creation. The lesson for the prophet Jeremiah, and for us, is that God is like the potter….forever offering transformation to us, with the hope of a new life…a new beginning.
If you are experiencing the sadness of an ending and the trepidation of a new tomorrow, sort of like a graduation from what you’ve know before and stepping in to the unknown, take comfort that God is the Master Potter, and in God’s hands, our lives will take a fresh shape…and we too can celebrate a new beginning.
Christ is alive, and goes before us,
to show and share what love can do.
This is a day of new beginnings;
our God is making all things new!
I look forward to seeing you Sunday,
Pastor
Sharon
*This Is The Day Of New Beginnings, Words by Brian Wren,
1978; Music by Carlton R. Young, 1984. Hope Publishing Co, 1987.
