I'm Making All Things New!

One of the disappointments in my life is that my parents never forced me to continue taking piano lessons. I know that back then I hated practising those miserable scales! With hind-sight, I wish now I could have bashed out a few tunes on the ivories!

One consolation is that I've always been able to enjoy music, both serious and popular. What passes for 'pop' music these days leaves me cold, just as the Beatles probably epitomised the decline of civilisation as my parents and grandparents knew it.

I enjoy, with other pieces of classical music, Dvoŕak's ‘New World’ symphony. This piece of music has given me, and thousands of others, too, countless hours of listening pleasure.

We generally associate the term 'new world' with the American Continent. Despite the wisdom that now teaches us that Christopher Columbus didn't discover America, the lands and islands of the West must have seemed a whole new world.

I often think, as I listen to Dvorak's symphony, that we don't have to discover new continents to experience new worlds. Yes, I know, travel broadens the mind, but in my experience it also broadens the middle! With imagination, each of us have the ability to discover newness in the everyday, old worlds that we inhabit.

We might go through the same routine every day; drive along the same road, interact with the same people or walk the dog along the same path as yesterday. But our world can become new, if we're on the lookout for new possibilities.

This world of God's is one of changing surprises—we've only got to alert our senses to appreciate them. And this is true when we see this tired old world as the one Jesus claimed. He talked in new ways about God showing his care in the beauty of the lilies and clothed more stunningly than Solomon in all his glory.

The world is always one of new beginnings. Peter denied Jesus three times. Then, after the Resurrection, Jesus gave Peter a new commandment, to care for people.

Life with Christ isn't a one-off experience. His word literally means, ‘I am continually making all things new’. So allow each day to be a cornucopia of fresh possibilities with God.