The school year is wrapped up and in the books. Graduation has come and passed. Spring has sprung. Cool weather is on its way out. It is the end of a school year, the end of a season, the end of life as it has been for a long time.

And yet, even though “the end” rolls around every year at this time, it is still such a happy, joyous, exciting time of year. School may be out, but that means that summer vacation is about to begin. Graduation may have rushed over our high school and college seniors, but that means they get to take that next step in life toward. Spring has nearly reached its peak and will soon give way to the warm rays of summer sun. Even though in many ways we are at the end of something, we are also at the beginning. And it is exciting!

This is what I think the Christian life is really like. Yes, something is ending. The old way of thinking, the old way of being, the closed-mindedness, the self-centeredness, the me-me-me way of life is over. We can’t live like that anymore. Everything has changed. We are part of a new creation and we must live in a new way.

That’s the way the apostle Paul talks about the Christian life in II Corinthians 5:17. “So if anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation: everything old has passed away; see, everything has become new!”

Because of the resurrection of Jesus Christ, new creation has begun. The Lord has begun remaking our world. And he has begun remaking us so we can be a part of the new creation. He is changing how we act, how we talk, how we love, how we give, how we work, how we play. If we really are a part of Jesus’ kingdom, a part of Jesus’ family, then we must be different than we were before.

When we call Jesus “Lord” we mean that we have surrendered our lives to him and we ask him to make us who he wants us to be. We don’t have to do it ourselves. We don’t have to try to sand and scrape and buff and polish the old life to make it good enough for him. We don’t have to build and form and make a new life for him to bless. We simply have to let him work in us, clearing out the old, making room for the new. And as the fresh wind of the Holy Spirit blows through our lives, we know that new creation has begun.