Don’t you just love a fresh start? I mess up so often that the chance to give it another go tomorrow is precious to me. Really, I’d like a “delete” or “rewind” superpower, but I’ve never seen one on offer at my local box store. And since I can’t undo my mistakes, I rejoice that our Creator is a God of fresh starts. They’re built into his whole program. I wake up in the morning and I’m in a brand new day, never before in existence. I fritter away the hour surfing the web, and when the long hand gets to the top of the clock, I have a whole new hour in which to attempt to use my time more wisely.

Every seven days we get a shiny new week. Twelve times a year, a big fat perfect new month is given us. Oh, and as December  shimmers away into memory, a new year, packed with potential, jammed with incipient joy, and loaded with love waiting to happen, awaits the turn of the calendar page. I have a new chance to do everything right. Okay, I know THAT’S not going to happen. But I can start over on my attempts to make my bathroom scale say nice things to me, to keep my finances under control, to walk more and sing more and write more… the possibilities are endless, enormous, exhilarating!

God knows we need fresh starts. He gently (and frequently) reminds us throughout Scripture to take things one day at a time. Let tomorrow take care of itself, because each day has enough worries, and fretting doesn’t accomplish anything anyway (aside from deepening those frown lines).

He does want us to redeem the time by doing good while we have the opportunity. He encourages us to number our days, and be conscious of how precious each bit of time is, so we don’t waste it on pursuits that don’t matter in the long run. Forget stuff, love people. Put your wants aside and help others. Take care of your health and your planet and each other.

God commands us to give others fresh starts, too. We’re to forgive our fellow human beings when they hurt us, not seven times, but seventy times seven. And when we forgive, we don’t keep track of the count, so the idea is to keep forgiving, just like God keeps forgiving us.

And that’s the most fantastic, undeserved, outrageous fresh start of all. God says come to me, and I’ll forgive anything and everything in your past, wipe the slate clean, love you more than you can imagine, and help you to walk in purity and joy. And if you mess up, just tell me about it, and you can have another fresh start. As many as you need, forever, until you come home and don’t have to worry about messing up ever again.