When they brought my new-born brother home from the hospital, my parents lived in an upstairs apartment in a small New York State town. The baby, Burr, was their first born. One day soon after bringing him home, Mildred, my mother, put him down in his crib after feeding him, softly closed the door, and went into the kitchen to do the lunch dishes. She remembered that she needed something from the grocery for dinner. Mildred got her sweater and purse, and headed down the stairs. It wasn’t until she reached for the front door knob that she remembered Burr asleep upstairs. She actually hesitated, then turned and ran back up to their apartment. When she told me this incident years later, my mother said, “That was when I knew that my life had changed forever.” Four more babies later, she had never repeated this event.

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come. All this is from God. (2 Corinthians 5:17-18) The “new creature” in my mother was motherhood itself. It was a new relationship that would shove aside old habits and ways of spending time. It would produce a love she hadn’t experienced in this way before. It would change her focus and give her new purposes, and even new friends as she met other mothers of infants. It would indeed be a “new” life for her.

St. Paul is probably the most often read of the apostles for his remark about the new life in Christ, but Jesus himself spoke to Nicodemus about it when he said, “Very truly I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless they are born of water and the Spirit. You should not be surprised at my saying, ‘You must be born again’. ( John 3:5 &7)

For a Christian, new birth implies a new relationship with someone familiar in name, but still unknown until the “new birth.” God promises this relationship with us: I will live in them and walk among them, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. . .and I will be your Father, and you shall be my sons and daughters.”(2Corinthians 6:18, Leviticus 26:12) All mothers experience the taste of a change in their physical lives; God gave us Jesus so that men and women alike could find new birth in Him. During this Lenten season, it’s good to rediscover the words in God’s Book.

Love in Him,

Prue