Joni And Friends Daily Devotional 23rd November 2024, Saturday Message
TOPIC: An Unfolding Adventure
“If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come! All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation.” – 2 Corinthians 5:17-18
Once during a flight to Kansas City, a woman from an adoption agency sat behind me on the plane. In her arms she held two beautiful Korean babies. My heart melted. They both looked like little Ken Tadas, with that gorgeous dark skin and hair, almond eyes, and full cheeks. I couldn’t take my eyes off those babies.
They had no idea of the life they were heading into. Within seconds of that plane landing, their lives would be turned upside down. They would have new names, new citizenship, a new culture, and new identities. They would have a new father and mother—in fact, a whole new family. Old things would pass away. From that point on all things would be new. Those babies hadn’t a clue as to what they were leaving behind and, more importantly, what was ahead.
When we become Christians, we can’t begin to fathom the new world we’re stepping into. In Christ we have new identities, a new family, new citizenship, and—at least in the Lamb’s Book of Life—we have new names. Goodness, we’re even adopted: “In the place where it was said to them, ‘You are not my people,’ they will be called ‘sons of the living God’” (Hos. 1:10).
In a way, I wish those Korean children could have understood. I wish they could have enjoyed starting a new life. But for them, it will be an unfolding adventure, just as it is for us as children of God…exploring, enjoying, discovering, as any child would.
How about you? Are you enjoying your new life today? Old things are passed away for you; all things have become new. Delight in the unfolding adventure.
PRAY: Father God, I don’t want to take for granted what you removed me from and what you replaced it with. Enable me today to see with childlike wonder the splendor of my new life with you. You have richly blessed me. And you’re not through yet!