2 Corinthians 5:17-18

Waterlily, Corkscrew Swamp Preserve, August 2013

So if anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation: everything old has passed away; see, everything has become new! All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ, and has given us the ministry of reconciliation
2 Corinthians 5:17-18

I stare in the mirror and think, "new."
With a few minutes' work my beard is a goatee.
A tweak. A slight change. A refreshing, as it were. 
Not the same old face as yesterday.
I walk up the steps and my knees say, "old." You are getting old. Well, older, anyway. The aches. The creaks. The twinges.
Everywhere change is in the air, Paul reminds us of that.
In Christ, we have been made new. 
It is the rhythm of our life now:
Being made new in Christ; 
Turning away from that which wounds us, 
Allowing the Holy Spirit to gather us in, 
to reconcile us back,
to be sharers of the great story of our lives 
of what God has done for us;
and in sharing to become workers with Christ,
for the healing of the world.