Celebrate the blessing of new beginnings

I narrowly escaped a serious auto accident and possibly even death recently.

On Dec. 20, I was returning from a visit to one of our homebound members who lives off Pittman Road. Around 5 p.m., I was driving south on the Parks Highway in the dark. There are no streetlights on that stretch of road and a long line of lights came at me from vehicles driving north out of Wasilla. Suddenly, out of the glare of lights, I realized one of those vehicles was in my lane driving full speed straight at me. I hit the brakes and swerved onto the shoulder. The vehicle that was driving at me did not swerve, it did not blink its lights and it did not slow down. But at 50 to 60 miles an hour, that vehicle drove right through the area where my car and the car behind me had been driving moments earlier. For about a mile, with my heart in my throat, I drove slowly along the shoulder glad I had missed a possibly fatal accident.

The blessing, however, of a close call like this is that the escape from harm and death gives a person an opportunity to be thankful to be alive. Such an escape is an opportunity to count our blessings and commit again to living each day as a child of God.

As we approach and begin the New Year, people often use the date on the calendar as an opportunity for a new beginning. But such new beginnings don't require a near-death experience or a change of years on the calendar. For those who are in Christ every day, in fact many times each day, we have the blessing of new beginnings.

One place that scripture tells us of such a new beginning is in Romans 6, 3-4: "Or don't you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life."

Paul says that we die with Christ and rise with him to "live a new life." One way God gives this new beginning is in our baptism. Every time we sin and repent of that sin, remembering our baptism, we have a new beginning as God forgives us. God puts the past behind us through his forgiveness won through Jesus' death on the cross.

As a person faces the hurts and disappointments of life trusting in Jesus we can continue through the pain knowing that God is with us in the love that caused him to send Jesus. By faith in Jesus we have the promise of eternal life in heaven, which gives us strength to face the challenges of each day.

It is always a blessing to put the past behind us and begin new again. For the Christian we have the blessing of those new beginnings every day through God's love and forgiveness for us in Jesus.

Jonathan Rockey is pastor of St. John Lutheran Church in Palmer.

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