Your Home Life & New Creation

Nature’s cycles – natural rhythms infused in God’s creation – restore and maintain the flourishing of all created life.

During the nighttime our bodies, minds, and (I suspect) our spirits, rest and recover in preparation for the dawning of a new day. Night and day is one cycle – a single beat of a repeated rhythm.

Seven of these daily rhythms make up one week.

When Scripture cites the days in a week it will sometimes refer to an “eighth day”. Stripped down, this “eighth day” is understood to symbolize a new beginning.

The “eighth day” is the idea of the new Monday after the end of the previous week. Another start. A new beginning. A new dawn. The beginning of a new creation.

The “New Year” marks one of creation’s larger cycles in a similar way. It, too, is a symbol of a new dawn. A new start. And new creation.

As we reflect on the past year as individuals, as couples, and as parents, it is a time to embody – believe and live – the good news of being set aside as “His People”.

Regarding failings of the past year:

No condemnation exists now for those in Christ Jesus because His Spirit’s law – the law of life in Christ Jesus – has set you free.
– Romans 8:1 (paraphrased)

Regarding the new year:

Those of us “in Christ” are a new creation; old things have passed away, and look!, new things have come.
– 2 Corinthians 5:17 (paraphrased)

In the coming year God wants to create new things in your home. He wants to make your family like a new creation. He wants to make a new creation in you.

Not only the new year, but each week and each day in the new year exist to continually present us with our re-birth.

As Sarah and I enter the new year here is the question we are cycling through with each other and with God:

How does God want to renew us in the new year? What parts of our human lives? In which of our daily rhythms can we join with Him in new ways?

We invite you to be living with these prayers alongside us as we continue this journey, together – priests and stewards of our homes.

A decision joins us to the eternal.
It brings what is eternal into time.
A decision [resurrects] us with a shock from the slumber of monotony. […]
A decision pronounces its blessing upon even the weakest beginning, as long as it is a real beginning.
Decision is the awakening to the eternal.
– S. Kierkegaard