Everything New

I've determined that I like new stuff.  New years, new clothes, new meals (yum)--it doesn't matter what it is, if it's new, I like it.  Perplexing, however, is that my new things get old, break down, and become downright boring after awhile.  Why is that?  Quite honestly, some of my greatest frustrations come from things getting old (including myself!).

As a science geek studying chemistry, the concept of entropy fascinated me.  That is, a system tends toward randomness or disorder.  I know it's true with my kids' bedrooms, but my own things break down and get old.  That explains why the toilets in my house break, the carpet gets dirty, my new shoes don't seem quite as cool, and even the food in my belly breaks down and I need more.  Pass the pizza pockets, please.

Jesus talked to a Samaritan woman sitting next to a well in the heat of the day.  He asks her for a drink, which is crazy because Jesus was a Jew and wasn't supposed to be speaking to a Samaritan.  Not to mention, a man shouldn't have been speaking to a woman in public.  Confused, the woman asks why he would ask her for a drink.  

Jesus' response is shocking:

"If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water" (John 4:10).

That'll clear things up, Jesus.  Living water?  C'mon, dude.  What's that?  She's thinking Jesus is really jacked now.  He goes on,

"Everyone who drinks this water (from the well) will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst.  Indeed, the water I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life" (John 10:13-14).

The scene goes on and Jesus eventually tells her that he's the Messiah, the Christ, God-in-the-flesh.  Not your everyday encounter at the drinking fountain.

Jesus has a different type of water than what the world has to offer.  I, just like the woman, have to keep going back to the well for another drink when I get thirsty.  I have to get a new car when the one I have breaks down.  I need new shoes when mine wear out.  I have to eat another meal later even though I just got done chowing.  The water Jesus offers provides an eternal quenching.  It satisfies the soul like nothing else in the universe can.  With him, I don't have to keep going looking for something else to fill me.  He fills me.  He's all I need.

If I don't remember that, I get tired...fast.  How can I ever keep up with the world that tells me I need more, more, more?

Here's what John says in Revelation 21:3-7 about heaven:

"Now the dwelling of God is with men, and he will live with them.  They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God.  He will wipe every tear from their eyes.  There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the OLD (emphasis added) order of things has passed away."

He who was seated on the throne said, "I am making everything NEW (emphasis added)!"...To him who is thirsty I will give to drink without cost from the spring of the water of life.  He who overcomes will inherit all this, and I will be his God and he will be my son.

What Jesus makes new never gets old.