So if anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation: everything old has passed away; see, everything has become new! — 2 Corinthians 5:17
The great thing about being a Christian is that we are given second chances. We are given second, third … even 77 chances! I think I have needed a good many of those opportunities to choose how I live my life. My most recent major repenting (changing of one’s mind; regretting something in the past and seeking a new future) caused me, a life-long practicing Presbyterian, to think again, and offer to serve God and God’s people as a minister, a servant of the church, a teaching elder. I left a career as a public servant with Environment Canada to work with Rev. Dr. Herb Gale as he established the new planned giving program for the denomination.
I was hungry to be more directly involved both in helping Herb to help congregations in breathing life and hope into actions and words that said “abundance” and “sufficiency” and “gratitude,” and in deepening my own spiritual awareness, understanding and being. Granted, it took some shock treatment (a spiritual crisis in my life) for God to catch my attention; my name is Joan but I responded like Jonah and ran. However, God is persistent, and so I found myself just inside the front doors of Knox College in September 2005, and I was overcome with the most profound sense of being in the right place at the right time. I have never lost that feeling. Now I know what it feels like to be “born again,” words that had never before escaped my lips. I feel brand new; I’m beginning a new life, eager to share my passion and walk with others as we live life together in community, deepening our relationships with God, with each other, and with the rest of humanity.
My husband, Scott and I share a hobby — amateur astronomy. We love gazing into God’s universe and marvelling at its beauty, its integrity and its affirmation that we are part of something so much bigger than us. The Hubble space telescope shows us distant galaxies and supernovas where old stars die and explode, seeding space with galaxies of new stars and planets and probably life too. “In the beginning, God created …” and God never stopped creating. Astronomers call places where old stars die and new stars are born “star nurseries.” Birth and re-birth, creation and re-creation, are ongoing throughout the universe — and within our own lives too. We are connected, integrated — with God, with each other, with our planet, and with the stars. The calcium and iron in our bodies came from exploding stars. This is God’s universe, fresh, ever brand new, filled with possibilities and bright hope. I am so grateful for this opportunity to learn, to serve, to grow, to draw closer to God and to God’s people. Thanks be to God!
