Brand new crayons are one of my favorite things in the world. I also love a book that has never been opened and a sealed-from-the-store can of paint. Using them all for the first time opens a world of possibilities. From masterfully created coloring book pages to church pews in glossy red, these simple things can effect so much change. The anticipation of that change gets my adrenaline pumping.
One of my greatest joys in life is cracking a book open for the first time. Every one of them is different, and that first look inside the cover reveals just a hint of what lies beyond. Don’t tell the Barnes and Noble down the street, but I could spend hours going through their store just to be the first one to open and read the first page of every book, to be the one to crack the spine. Oh the joy!!
To be honest, I love a lot of things brand new – like the skirt that fits just right with the tags still on or the office organizing boxes that have yet to be filled. Brand new things are cool – but even cooler are the possibilities of those things. I have bought some stuff that I never used for what I had originally intended, but you know, I like the way they are used now better. Some of those things I have repurposed as we have moved from one house to another, never anticipating the multiple uses when I bought them.
I really do love brand new things…as you can tell, but I possess one brand new thing that is worth far more than all the others, one brand new thing I value more than anything in the world. Me.
When I was six years old, God made me brand new as well. I accepted Him as my Savior, and I have never been the same. Much like those crayons and that can of paint, the possibilities of what God could do with me were far beyond what I could have ever dreamed. The adventure on which He has taken me is something I never could have imagined when He cracked the book that very first time.
Sadly though, the crayons break and the paint dries in the can and the joy of the beginning is lost. The broken crayons make a beautiful rainbow crayon when melted together and there are multiple uses for the paint can, but nothing can replace that feeling of them being brand new.
You know, I get the same way. I get broken, dried, frayed, and worn, just like all those brand new things I used to have. But what is amazing to me is the fact that I get to start over every morning, every moment – and starting over means I am brand new again. God takes all of the junk and clears it away and I start with a clean slate – thank goodness. I get to be that brand new crayon every single moment – the possibilities of the pictures He will draw with me are endless. How cool will it be to get to the end of life and see the masterpiece He has created out of me?
So, I celebrate Easter this week, because it is this one event that has changed my eternity, one moment in time that allows me to be a brand new crayon every single moment. How awesome.
By the way, if I am going to be a crayon, I would really like to be a blue one :).
“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new” (2 Corinthians 5:17).
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