The spring green jumped out at me from the brown backdrop of winter.  It seemed that the new leaves were shouting, “Hey, spring is happening right here!  We’re new, we just arrived!”  I was glad to welcome them and thankful that the sun had been so hospitable.  There are shoots of new springing up everywhere I look.  A daffodil stands proudly with its yellow, frilly mane.  The white petals of the dogwood tree are bursting with the announcement that the seasons are shifting.  The welcomed rain washes the world green.

I love new.  There’s just something about new that ambushes my heart and steals my attention.  New clothes.  New pen.  New album.  New recipe.  New stationary.  New car.  New book.  And last but not least, new shoes.  There is an excitement that surrounds new that just can’t be duplicated or faked.  The state of ‘new’ is achieved when promise and fabulous intersect.  For example, you stand in a dressing room having discarded five dresses in disgust.  One more remains.  You slip it on and zip it up.  You have to force yourself to look into the mirror.  You lift your eyes, expecting disappointment to reign again, and then fabulous and promise come waltzing in.  A big smile takes over for the sour look that the last five dresses caused.  This dress hugs all the right curves.  It’s your new dress.  You will be leaving with a new dress!  Then on your second wear, you drop BBQ sauce on it and notice that a seam is coming apart.  It’s not new anymore.

It’s just how it goes.  Whether it’s a dent in the car, a scuff mark on your new fav shoes, 100 listens to the new album or  the recipe that has worn out its welcome.  It’s the state of things.  New is such a fun thing and the transition to not new is depressing.  I can’t hold on to new very long.  I am a klutz and if luck is a thing, I have terrible luck.  No matter how much I enjoy the new buzz and try to keep promise and fabulous as permanent house guests, the state of new just doesn’t last too long.  It’s always been a frustrating thing for me.

Yesterday when I stepped outside, promise and fabulous rushed to greet me from everywhere I looked!  The trees are flowering, the rosebushes are thriving and the hydrangeas are excited its spring.  I breathed in new and exhaled the knowledge that new won’t stick around for long.   I jumped in my car, already moving on to the list of things to do when a verse sprang to mind:

“The Lord’s love never ends.

His mercies never stop.

They are new every morning.”

Lamentations 3:22-23a (ICB)

I sat still in the minivan.  New. Is. Always. With. Me.  God used the green spring grass to get my attention!  “Don’t forget, Bethany, my mercies are new each morning!”  NEW!  EVERY DAY!  Promise and fabulous greet me when I awake each day!  I step into new when I put my feet on the floor and rise to start a new day.  I love how The Voice version says it, “How enduring is God’s loyal love; the Eternal has inexhaustible compassion.  Here they are, every morning, new!”  Spring is shouting this right now!  Let the flowers, the fresh buds on the trees, the green grass and the warm sun be a reminder that we encounter a new start each day.  We didn’t use up God’s love or forgiveness yesterday.  We don’t have to ration it and use it sparingly to retain the new feeling!  Though so much in the world trends toward decay and ends up tarnished, God gives us new mercies each day.  Greet each day with the proclamation, “Here they are, every morning, new!”