“In God’s great mercy we have been given a new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead” – 1 Peter 1:3

Happy New Year!  Gung hei fat choi!

I love the sounds, colors, and tastes of the Chinese New Year.  Perhaps more than these great traditions, I love that it comes on a day other than January 1.  Using the lunar calendar means starting the new year on a different day than the Gregorian Calendar.  The Jewish calendar also operates on the lunar cycle but its New Year’s Day comes in September.  I also enjoy thinking of birthdays as personalized New Year’s Day celebrations.  There is a gift in have more than one New Year’s Day in a year.

I am drawn to the idea that each day has the possibility of being a new beginning.

I love the idea that each day can hold renewal within it.  Each and every day there is a possibility to learn a skill, rethink a position, or start a tradition.  With God today has the possibility of a new beginning.  This idea is captured beautifully in Brian Wren’s 1978 hymn, “This is the Day of New Beginnings”

This is a day of new beginnings, // Time to remember and move on,

Time to believe what love is bringing, // Laying to rest the pain that’s gone.

For by the life and death of Jesus, // God’s mighty Spirit, now as then,

Can make for us a world of difference, // As faith and hope are born again.

Then let us, with the Spirit’s daring, // Step from the past and leave behind

Our disappointment, guilt and grieving, // Seeking new paths, and sure to find.

Christ is alive, and goes before us, // To show and share what love can do.

This is a day of new beginnings; // Our God is making all things new.