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  • Haley Haskin

Fresh Starts and Divine Anticipation

Updated: Apr 30, 2023


There is something intoxicating about a fresh start. A fresh start is a cleaned slate, a freshly mown lawn, a vacuumed house, a glazed ice rink, a shaken Etch-a-Sketch, or even just going to bed and waking to the chirping birds the next morning. These all have the same thing in common. They are all a blank canvas; untarnished, new, and just waiting to be acted upon. A world of possibility accompanies a fresh start. And the excitement over this possibility seems to be shared by humans universally.


Think about all the fresh starts you see when you scroll through Instagram. Letter boards boast the birth of a newborn, the first day of school, or the goals for the new year. Whitewashed photos glorify new bathroom makeovers, reorganized pantries, and decluttered closets. Landscape shots announce new moves to new places, the first day of vacation, or the changing of the seasons. Mirror pics spread the news of the first day on the new job or the new exercise regimen. Selfies show off new haircuts, hair colors, new outfits, and “new me”s. Fresh starts are the restart button of the human condition.


There is something fulfilling about fresh starts because of the possibilities they hold. There is a perfection and wholeness at rest out on this calm, yet undisturbed sea of possibility. Glassy and smooth, it has not had a chance to be rippled, spoiled, or corrupted. It awaits being acted upon. And that is an inspiring and freeing concept to the creative human mind. We can do anything we want to do with it! For this period, the world feels like our oyster, and is seen through rose-colored glasses. The intoxication of a fresh start can push us to be brave, try new things, change old habits, eat new foods, adopt new hobbies, make new friends, and even alter our worldviews. Fresh starts open the human mind and, in a way, put it into a survival mode that is productive and energized.


You know what I wondered? I wondered if our creator built that excitement into mankind. I wondered if God meant to incite excitement in us at the prospect of a fresh start so that we might also feel this refreshed when we are first saved, when we are baptized, and even when we ask daily for forgiveness and mind renewal. I thought maybe it helps us receive our salvation with more gratitude because it just feels so good. But really, I think that the feeling of a fresh start points like a needle on a compass to where we came from and where we are going. That fresh start feeling in this life reminds us of our eternal home. We feel we remember it fondly, yet we long for it almost sickeningly, because God has put eternity in our hearts, but we aren't there yet. I think that fresh starts feel so good because we were created for the freshness of Eden and Heaven. A truly clean slate. A constant state of newness. Right now we affect ourselves every day. Though God is constantly showing us His grace, and has washed away our repeated sins, we are still broken and striving and suffering. In eternity we will experience true newness, untainted by any brokenness. I bet that will be unimaginably refreshing.


Until then, to know that God gives us a fresh start every day, every hour, every minute, and for all of eternity is the most satisfying fresh start of all. It feels like drinking a tall glass of cool water, or cleanly crawling into cool heavy sheets. It is deeply comforting, soul satisfying, and the highest form of motivation mankind can know – to have a reset button on our sins, an eternal stack of blank canvases to rewrite our wrongs, and the world’s biggest pink eraser to cover our mistakes. We aren’t just receiving a fresh start that incites a new chapter in our lives. We are receiving a fresh start that saves our lives over and over, every time our fallen nature rears its head. The confidence we can have in our divine fresh start is like a never-setting sun shining in the distance, from which we can always receive comfort and warmth. And it is cool that God built us to be able to relish and understand that.


Right now, I am racking up in the fresh start department, and I feel hashtag blessed! The promise of crisp autumn dances on the wind. The seasons are changing, and I am reminded of God’s divine creativity and divine romance. He made all the seasons different, so at the coming of each one our enjoyment might increase, and we might be even more grateful for the beautiful world He has given us to live in.


I am getting married in only one week, and I am elated with the possibilities of a new life, serving my husband, framing the Gospel, and revering it all up to God in acknowledgement of one of His most beautiful designs.


New moves and jobs are about to take place for my new husband and me, and I am nervous but motivated to make things work the best we can, trusting in God’s provision and guidance.


And now, the dusk is drawing near, and it is revealed to me that God knows we need renewal often. So He creates beautiful sunsets and sunrises, and times for our bodies to rest, so they can be rejuvenated for the next bit of work that must be done.


The fresh starts that are about to flood my life with newness and uncharted waters make my head spin. Sometimes when I think about how different and exciting life is about to be I get a little weak knee’d. But my focus always comes back to this joyous center that all of it will be explored in the presence of a loving God. My understanding of God’s built-in design of the human urge for renewal is intensified, as I realize the parallels of my need for newness in my physical, emotional, and spiritual life. I am in love with the idea that God anticipates the needs of His children, and then takes care of them so well.


I am so grateful and excited about the blessings God is pouring into my life, that I don’t just want to go through these life changes passively. I want to be involved and impactful, glorifying Him in the process. I want to excel at being all the new things I am about to be. I plan to relish these new changes in my life, facing them head on with all the strength I’ve got. I am endlessly excited for the chapters that are about to unfold. I am so eager to breathe in this sweet intoxicating aroma of the fresh start, and let it push me to explore and act upon this unchartered territory with the root strength of a seven-foot-wide tree, the flexibility of a windstorm, and the fuel of a raging fire, all under the authority of God’s loving hand.

 

"Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!" - 2 Corinthians 5:17


"Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all." - 2 Corinthians 4:16-17


"Because of the Lord's great love, we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness. I say to myself 'The Lord is my portion; therefore I will wait for him.'"- Lamentations 3:22-24


"Forget the former things; do not swell on the past. See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the wilderness and streams in the wasteland." - Isaiah 43:18-19


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