December | 2010 | songsofredemption

After celebrating Christmas yesterday I’ve been thinking a lot about the concept of new birth. We spend our time celebrating the birth of Jesus, and I took some more time to dwell on the overall meaning of his birth. I think Christmas is a wonderful time to celebrate the all-encompassing act of God sending His son–not just the fact that He was born into this earth, but also His life on earth to teach us how to love, His death as a sacrifice for us, and His resurrection to allow us to taste our own new birth and dwell with Him forever. What a beautiful time of year to celebrate the one day that birthed our intimate relationship with our Father and essentially the rest of eternity with Him!

The past few days the verse in 2 Corinthians keeps coming to mind: “Therefore if anyone is in Christ the new creation has come. The old has gone, the new is here!” I LOVE this verse and the whole concept of receiving His life from His death. What a new birth to celebrate! We can live with His Spirit reflecting His glory for His fame, and our history can’t tarnish it. It makes me think of getting a total makeover, moving to a new place, starting a new profession, and being surrounded by people who have never known you and totally creating a new name for yourself. No one there will know if you’ve never been one to work out and now you’re doing yoga three times a day—they won’t know that your hair used to be black and now it’s red–they won’t know that you used to hate health food and now you only settle for market fresh organic…a chance for new beginnings. Now do I think that’s the healthiest thing to do with your life? Eh…not necessarily. However, the wonderful thing about Jesus is that you don’t have to wipe away your past to become a new creation. He takes every piece of us, fills us with His Spirit, and somehow makes it into a beautiful new creation. He takes each old experience and shapes it into something original, refreshing, life-giving. Death brings life. I will quote the Gungor song “Beautiful Things” because the whole idea of that song fits perfectly. (Thank you, Evans family, for bringing that song to light in my mind.) Please, friends, check out the album artwork as well.

All around
Hope is springing up from this old ground
Out of chaos life is being found in You

You make beautiful things
You make beautiful things out of the dust
You make beautiful things
You make beautiful things out of us

You make me new, You are making me new

So today, as I have been reflecting on the birth of Jesus I also celebrate the new birth I have in Him. And I thank him for every new beginning; each beginning is a chance to grow, to gain new knowledge, to be stretched beyond our comfort, and to seek Him to sustain us and fulfill us. I have just begun another new journey touring with the African Children’s Choir–new faces, new personalities, new duties, new gifts, new opportunities, new schedules, new challenges and constantly new homes. May my true home be found in my Abba. I’m thankful for the opportunity to serve Him in new ways and in new places. Changes can be hard. Being a beginner can feel overwhelming, frustrating, and belittling, but I will choose to see it as an opportunity for a new beautiful thing–another chorus in my songs of redemption.

See pictures below to check out some of the beautiful things I enjoyed on Christmas in Oregon with our 13 gems.