BORN AGAIN
Monday in the Second Week of Easter
My dear encountered couples:
If you won a million dollars, I bet it would brighten your day. You’d probably feel like a different person. Duties you considered as drudgery, routine that bored you, a life that depressed you would all of a sudden become wonderful. There is something about good news or a new experience that can change our lives and our attitudes from the doldrums to the mountain tops. A new love especially can make the sun shine on everything. That is what should happen when we are “born again.”
“I solemnly assure you,” Jesus said to Nicodemus, “no one can see the kingdom of God unless he is begotten from above, unless he is born again of the Holy Spirit.”
Sometimes we are filled with enthusiasm and eager to attend a party or go on a trip. In spring some people get all worked up over planting new flowers and shrubs in their yards. The thought of a coming vacation can especially revitalize us. But how about scrubbing the kitchen floor, washing the windows, getting up at six in the morning to go to work? The being “born again” of which Jesus speaks brightens every day, adds a freshness and glow to no matter what it is we do - even to reading or listening to a boring reflection or sermon.
Though being born again does not mean we will always be filled with high and wonderful feelings, it does mean our thinking, our talking, our living will be elevated far above the natural and normal. Because we will begin looking at things and evaluating things as God sees and values them.
When we let God, and God alone, be the center and source of all we need and hope for, then we can be born again, and again, and again, and be filled daily with a freshness that heaven alone can offer.
