I thought about trying to make my car more like new (in order to keep me from wanting a new car so much). It would need new tires and wheels (the plastic wheel covers are peeling and the steel rims are rusty). The scratches left by the canoe are too deep to buff out, so it would need a paint job. Road hazards have damaged some trim pieces that would need replacing. And my kids, who like coffee drinks and hot cocoa, have stained the upholstery. I totalled it up. To actually repair all these things would cost almost as much as the car is worth.

But it could be done.

Could you spend enough money to make your life new? A haircut, a manicure, a personal trainer, a massage, would that do it? Would new clothes make you new again? A new job, a new house, even a new identity could not do it. You will still carry with you all the things that make you feel old - the history - the griefs - the losses - the personal fears or frustrations with your own personal failings.

What can we do? Must we just be recycled? Is it time, as some people believe, for us to just end our lives and be recycled, hopefully, into some new life?

NO! Even the Hindu reincarnation does not make people new. It only leaves them trapped forever in the same cycle of loss and failure and unhappiness.

But God says that we can be NEW, a new creation, in Christ. Having been reconciled to God through Jesus' sacrifice, we have no more of that old baggage. It is gone. Erased. Washed away. If I could replace every component of my car with a shining new part, and all the rust and damage and scratches and stains were taken away, then it would be a new car. It wouldn't matter if it got some dirt on it as I drove. Under the mud splashes would be a brand new vehicle.

You may still have mud clinging to you from the troubles of today. Your body may be creaky and your hair a bit thin, but the stains of the past, the rust and the dents of sin, are gone. God has replaced your old life with a new one. You died in your baptism, and you are now alive through Christ.