brand sparkling new

I know it's already the fifth day of the year, but I've been thinking about this whole "new" thing.

You know, it's a new year (congratulations, btw), so it's the time when

we think about newness.

Well, on Sunday at church we had a sermon on newness. I arrived half way through because I had been feeding Theresa, so I can't tell you the passage, but the gist of it was that in Christ, we have a new heart, a new life, a new self. In fact, every day, God renews us. Every day we must walk in the pattern of this new life that He has given us.

So as I was sitting there, listening to the sermon, mulling over this newness in Christ, and a Big Thought hit me. I love it when Big Thoughts hit me. It's like, all of a sudden, the penny drops, something ticks over in my head and some I finally understand something properly, well at least a little bit properly.

I was thinking about the buzz of newness. You know, there's nothing like getting something new. I remember back in my former life in NZ, the incredible feeling of money burning in my wallet and the urge to buy something new, an urge which I sometimes satisfied. But after a while the new thing, wasn't so new again and after a bit more of a while, that urge for buying something new burned within me again. Here in the Solomons, the only new thing I buy is food (at least, I hope it's new ;). Sometimes I go to the Chinese second hand clothing stores (which by the way, if you come to the Solomons and don't go to one of them you're really really missing out...) and even though the clothes there aren't new, there's still a bit of a buzz about newness.

And then there's the buzz of newness that I get with all these parcels and pressies people have sent for Theresa. (Thank you sooo much, by the way). Lovely. Look, Theresa, here's a new dress for you, or a new bib for you, or a new rattle for you. It's great. Every week or so for the last month, I've got a buzz over the new pressies for Theresa. But invariably they won't be new forever.

But this buzz of newness isn't just a by-product of clothes and presents. Sometimes I wish I could watch a new movie, not the same old ones, or eat a different meal, listen to some new music, or paint a wall a new colour, or (well, back when I had a flower garden in NZ) plant a new flower bush. Sometimes I like other people's places better than my own. Why? It's new to me. It's a buzz for me.

I don't know if you're the same. Maybe you might be because our culture is quite crazed about consumerism and newness.

But the snag is this: eventually this new whatever will lose its newness and buzz and you'll have to get a new whatever to get back the newness and the buzz.

It was at this point (believe me, it didn't take me as long to think about this as it's taking to write) the dollar dropped in my head. All my life I've been going after a newness that doesn't last, but maybe this desire for newness is ingrained in us humans. But like that "God-shaped vacuum in our heart", our lust for newness won't be filled by material possessions or different experiences. Our desire for something new can only be filled by us becoming something new in Christ. That's a newness that doesn't lose it's buzz, or if it does, it's a sign that we're falling back into our old ways, our old life, rather than relentlessly pursuing Christ and our new self in Him.

So, there's a brand sparkling new thought for the new year. A newness that renews its newness every day.