New Year's Devo - Transformed

Mark Twain once said that “New Year’s is a harmless annual institution, of no particular use to anybody save as a scapegoat for promiscuous drunks, and friendly calls, and humbug resolutions.” Someone else, less famous but just as astute, said “a New Year's resolution is something that goes in one year and out the other. 

While the optimist within me wants to reject these cynical words, I have to admit the element of truth. Just watch the stampede of chubby joggers hitting the streets on January 1. A month later their waistlines may not be thinner but their numbers definitely will be!

So can we really change? The Bible promises that we can, especially if the Ultimate Change Agent lives inside of us. Paul the Apostle says to all of us who believe:  we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as from the Lord, the Spirit (2 Corinthians 3:18). The word “transformed” is translated from the greek word “metamorphoo,” from which we also get our word “metamorphosis.”

A dramatic illustration of that word in nature is the fascinating transformation of the milkweed caterpillar into a beautiful monarch butterfly. When we look at that fat, rather unattractive larvae pigging out on milkweed leaves, it is hard to believe that it will only take two weeks to slim down, sprout colourful wings, and take flight! While there is an outward shedding of old caterpillar skin, most of the change is from the inside out – a genetic miracle!

So it is when we have the Creator of the Universe living inside of us. He can transform sinners into saints, old into new, death into life.

We can set resolutions with confidence if our first is to walk out each day of the coming year with the One who makes all things new!