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Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.
2 Corinthians 5:17

If you’ve ever watched the Passion of Christ, you may remember the scene where Mary, the mother of Jesus, watches as He carries the cross through the streets of Jerusalem. He drops it and falls to the ground, causing her to flash back to a memory of him as a little boy taking a fall. She remembers running to him, clutching him up in her arms and saying “I’m here.” She now runs to her grown Son as He lay on the ground. She tries to comfort him. He looks up at her and says, “You see, mother, I make all things new!” (if you haven’t seen it, here’s where you can watch the scene, but please be prepared–the Passion of Christ is graphic).

Just as this clip was shown during a service at my church, I looked up at this huge wooden beam cross which my pastor had arranged to have mounted from the ceiling. The words “all things new” echoed in my heart.

I remember earlier in my walk as a widow, missing my husband so badly. He was ripped away so suddenly that I had no choice but to try and move forward. But oh how those first years were hard. The marriage to my husband was so good. That life was so joyous. And the memory of it pulled me back—giving me that reason to be hesitant– what if something else goes wrong?

I can remember wanting to cling to my kids or my friendships. I remember sitting in my room rather than venturing out to meet someone. Or thinking about hurts—friends or relatives who found other things more important than the commitment they made to me when I was widowed. People have their own struggles. Sometimes they too are grieving their own types of loss, and my loss no longer grabs their attention.

All those thoughts and fears can swirl and trap you into hesitancy. I know it sometimes did for me.

And then I would think about how it was when I first met my husband—all things were new—I was younger, no kids yet except my two future stepchildren and they were new too—all new. Exciting. New. “I make all things new” Jesus says, and he’s right. These things that I kept in my heart were things I needed to let go of. It’s nice to remember and love the people God has had in your life, but I don’t have to have all things focused on what has passed. I let Him make all things new—All new love for each and every person in my life–those that have been there forever, and those that come in new to my life.

And the all-new love isn’t just for me–it’s for each of us. That widow twelve time zones away from me on the other side of the world who emails me daily to report on the arduous life she has in a country where Christians are persecuted and a widow is ignored for fear that men associating with her are dishonoring her dead husband by speaking to what they still consider as “his” wife.

It also means the woman I met who doesn’t know Christ but is married to a gem of a man who has raised her three children from an earlier marriage—a marriage that ended in divorce due to that first husband’s irresponsibility. That woman still pines for the first marriage—now lost not only to divorce but death as well. She lives in the memory –yearning for it, even as she remains married to a knight-in-shining-armor. Oh, if she could only know that her Messiah has truly come and can rid her of the yearning by filling it completely. He makes all things new! If she could allow Christ to fill that hole in her heart, she would be healed enough to let that now husband in.

And for the widows who don’t seem to have extraordinary circumstances like living in another country or living with a powerful memory you just can’t shake. Perhaps it’s just having to consider doing it all over again that has you stuck, not able to move forward.

BUT YOU CAN.

You can consider “all things new”. You can shed the old skin and grieve fully enough so that you may look at your life like you did ten, twenty, thirty, or more years ago when you had those eyes of youth, fresh with the wonder of what will the future hold!

Your future is all new—as long as you have breath in you, you can build again, love again, impact others for eternity!

Lord, would You please show the sweet widow reading this post that You love her. That Your saving resurrection allows her to begin all things new today. Amen.