A Redeemed New Year

What would life be if we had no courage to attempt anything?”

– Vincent Van Gogh

See, I am making all things new!

– Jesus Christ - Revelation 21:15

I got to usher out the old year and greet the new year in a pretty emotional way this year.

Almost six years ago, one of my best friends died of a widow-maker heart attack - right in front of his wife and pre-teen/teenage kids- while they were all on vacation together.

It was tragic and traumatic. His wife was, and is, also a very close friend to my wife and I. I have to admit the larger pain of my friend’s death was watching her live with her loss - the loss of her best friend and life-mate, her kids’ father, their income, their plans…

One day before the last day of this year, she walked down the aisle to end her season of widowhood and became a married woman again! Her new husband experienced the loss of his wife a few years earlier. Before our eyes was a new love, not to replace the old ones, but a whole new one - with its own unqiueness. It redeemed a lot of things, not just in them, but in everyone present that day.

When you think of redemption, what do you think of? Being forgiven for your bad stuff? Most people think something like that. When I did a quick google search today, it told me that redemption was “the act of being saved from sin, error or evil.” That is certainly not what I saw that day when my friend and her husband began their new marriage while honoring their deceased spouses. They were celebrating something totally new, while honoring something that had been lost by both of them.

That is what redemption really is. Redemption is not just about overcoming depravity like sin, error or evil. It is overcoming a loss; it is a returning to an original, glorious intent - God’s intent for humanity - which includes my friend, and it includes each of us! Now, the loss could be as a result of sin, error or evil. But the overarching quality of redemption is a return to original value - a return to God’s intent!

Being redeemed requires courage. I saw it that day in a couple of ways in the wedding. Both the bride and the groom had to be brave enough to move forward with a new love while remembering and living with the old loves. They both did this while speaking of each other’s spouses in their vows. It was beautiful.

Then there was this other beautiful and poignant moment of redemption. It was during the vows where the pastor asked them to repeat phrases about money, health and sickness. When it came to “until death do us part”, my friend paused. Not because she was hesitating to commit her love and her life to her new husband, but because she was risking having to suffer the loss of death - God forbid - again. But she took a breath, and took a step toward trusting God with that possibility. She courageously stepped into redemption!

Redemption is a brave dance of risking future loss while obtaining present gain while simultaneously stepping away from past loss - all at the same time.

Being willing to dance like that is a great way to start a new year - and a new marriage. We all can’t get married at the beginning of the year, but we can step toward redemption - a return to God’s intent for each of us individually and for us as a community. Let’s be braver and stronger together!

By the way, I am excited that I have a new friend now too - her husband. Congratulations Torrey and Kymberly Jasper!