One morning I was looking for fossils in Grafius Run while enjoying a hot cup of coffee. Why? Well, Grafius Run flows through our backyard, and after a good rain, it always churns up fossils. I enjoy looking for them, and over the years, I have accumulated a nice collection.
After being bent over for a while, I stood up to stretch and found myself eye-to-eye with two newborn fawns. They didn’t seem concerned, or in a hurry to leave, so I started taking pictures.
Those little fawns were wide-eyed with curiosity. There was no fear in them at all. I whispered to them, and they actually got closer until they were within arm’s reach. This went on for a few minutes before they turned and quietly disappeared into the long grass. It was an amazing, almost sacred, experience.
Nothing catches our attention quite like something new. For me, newborn anything tops the list—babies, kittens, puppies, peeps, fawns. They remind us of what life was like before attack, hurt, and failure left behind the scars of bitterness, regret, and fear.
Life on planet earth causes us to grow old. Wrinkles crease our faces, and gravity pulls our heads and shoulders downward. We fight valiantly to stay young, but old wins — always have and always will.
It wasn’t meant to be that way. Old is an intruder. Old came with sin — and it has been our story for so long that we accept old as natural. We even think God is old, but we couldn’t be more wrong. God is not old; He is new and young, always and forever. Old belongs to us. Old is the lingering scar of sin. Old does not touch heaven.
Jesus described heaven as the place where everything is always new. See Matthew 6:19-21. God described Himself to Moses only in the present tense, “I AM that I AM.” See Exodus 3:14. It must break the heart of God—the Always New and Ageless One—to watch His children grow old in sin.
G. K. Chesterton pondered the mystery of God’s perpetual newness. He wrote, “Because children have abounding vitality — they want things repeated — they always say, ‘Do it again’; and the grown-up person does it again until he is nearly dead. For grown-up people are not strong enough to rejoice in repetition. But perhaps God is strong enough to rejoice in repetition. It is possible that God says every morning, ‘Do it again’ to the sun, and every evening, ‘Do it again’ to the moon. It may not be automatic necessity that makes all daisies alike; it may be that God makes every daisy separately but has never gotten tired of making them. It may be that He has the eternal appetite of infancy; for we have sinned and grown old, and our Father is younger than we. The repetition in Nature may not be a mere recurrence; it may be an unending and always new theatrical encore.”
Our God is eternally new. His compassions are new every morning. It is so difficult for us aging ones to comprehend the perpetual newness of God’s love, mercy, and grace. We tire of ourselves, our antagonists, our failures, and our fears. We become depleted, disenchanted, cynical, skeptical, sad, and bitter. We grow old on the inside.
Paul wrote, “Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.” II Corinthians 4:16-18.
God said to Joshua, “You are now very old, and there are still very large areas of land to be taken over.” Joshua 13:1. Outward oldness doesn’t matter—what matters to God is inward newness and vitality. Jesus said we must become like little children to enter the kingdom of heaven. On the inside, we must be new and innocent and wide-eyed and vulnerable and eager.
But how? Like anything else worth having, being renewed day by day requires discipline. We must tap fully into God’s mercy and grace and hope — and we must be willing to pass mercy and grace and hope to others. The constant flow of God’s goodness, both in and out, keeps us fresh and new on the inside.
Another year has passed. On the outside, we are getting older, but on the inside, God’s goodness is renewing us day by day! There is more ground to conquer! More mercy and grace and hope to receive and give. My dear friends, if we are willing to freely receive and give goodness, there is always more and more — an unending supply. That’s how it is with God.
Today the calendar is new—and by God’s grace—so are we. Father, let it be so. Do it again, and again and again—never let our hearts grow old. Renew us day by day. Let it be so today and tomorrow and every day ‘till heaven. Amen.
