New Life!
Sunset at Mohave Point
2014 is nearly over, but 2015 is just beginning. There is an odd mingling of emotions this time of year. At some point, each of us will reflect upon the experiences had in 2014. Some personalities will dwell here at length, while others will only spare a few moments of backward looking. Regardless, 2014 will be remembered as it spends its final seconds. Midnight on January 1, 2015 simultaneously marks the end and the beginning. As our time in reflective contemplation comes to a close, we quickly transition to thoughts of what might be, can be, and will be. A new beginning stretches before us, brimming with potential and possibilities.
This is not unlike the Genesis flood in the context of our history. The flood marked the end of the world as it had been witnessed and understood. A familiar climate, topography, relationship with animals, and interaction with each other ended while an entirely new “normal” was set forth. The end, joined powerfully with a new beginning. God used the powerful forces of a year-long, global, catastrophic event to pour out His wrath and grant mercy. What Noah and his family had understood about the earth, animals, and God was very different after the flood. Nearly all that was familiar was gone; washed away and never recovered. However, the rainbow in the sky signified a fresh start. God had chosen mercy and wrath rather than just wrath.
Each time we engage the canyon, we set our eyes upon a massive memorial giving testimony to the fact that God will not ignore our sin, but He will give us a new life. This gift of new life has been made available to us through the blood of Jesus. The apostle, Peter connects our new life in Christ to the flood of Noah in 1 Peter 3:18-22. “For Christ died for our sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous; to bring you to God. He was put to death in the body but made alive by the Spirit, through whom also he went and preached to the spirits in prison who disobeyed long ago when God waited patiently in the days of Noah while the ark was being built. In it only a few people, eight in all, were saved through water, and this water symbolizes baptism that now saves you also – not the removal of dirt from the body but the pledge of a good conscience toward God. It saves you by the resurrection of Jesus Christ, who has gone into heaven and is at God’s right hand – with angels, authorities and powers in submission to Him.”
Praiseallujiah!
Jon
