Born Again

The Jacaranda trees on this semi –trailer take up its full length and have a girth as thick as my thigh so they are very advanced trees. They are being given a new home in a park in Dubbo, having been transported from Brisbane in Queensland. They will now have a new life in nice surroundings where they will be kept well watered and cared for as they develop a new root system and start to draw their sustenance from rich

healthy soil. Thus they will develop to their full potential and have lovely shade, like this one on the right that is already established in the same street. When they are in flower they will be admired by thousands of people passing by. The transition has not been, and will not be, easy for them. However, as you can see they must have been grown in poor soil under difficult conditions, therefore the end result of all this transplanting will make it all very worthwhile for them.

There are lots of people in this city (and in Australia generally) who are undergoing a similar transition, having been uprooted and “transplanted” from the country where they were born to settle in this new land. That can be difficult too as Australia is based on Christian teaching which many new comers don’t understand. But like the trees as they put their roots down in this new land and enjoy its freedom with all the possibilities for them and their families, they too will find it all very rewarding.  My Dad did this when he came here because he ignored “Multiculturalism” (which divides people into groups) and adopted assimilation. He learnt the language, married an Aussie and refused to even teach us children the Russian or Polish languages, whilst adopting the attitude that the past is past, and it is the future that matters.

This is very much like what happens when we become a Christian. The Bible puts it like this: “If any man be in Christ he is a new creation, old things have passed away; behold all things have become new”. The very thought of this transition often holds people back from making a commitment to Christ because we don’t like change.  I suppose if trees could think, those Jacarandas might have held back when they realised they were being offered a completely new environment. The migrants and refugees mentioned earlier could have been apprehensive too. However we know that they both now have a wonderful future ahead of them, just as Christians look to an Eternal future. You see, “God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him shall not perish, but have everlasting life”. Now that is good news! Certainly there will be changes for the person who has been living a life to please himself without reference to God, but they are ‘automatic’ changes, because when we suddenly realise that we are sinners in God’s sight and are on our own, (having Hell as our eternal destination), we feel completely lost, and rightly so, because we are lost. However when we also realise that God sent Jesus to be deliberately crucified to pay the price of all our sin and has also sent His Holy Spirit to be our “helper” and guide, it is a normal response for us to be overwhelmed with gratitude, A change then takes place in our life so that we want to co-operate with this loving God and do his will which is clearly set out in His instruction book called the New Testament. In there we find statements like Ephesians 3:17 “That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith: that ye, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height; and to know the love of Christ which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fullness of God.” Now this is just a snippet from this great love letter from God to you and me; we need to read it all in order to grasp the unbelievable riches that are ours for the accepting.          Best wishes,  Tom.