A friend brought me a new juicy-looking orange for 2023 on New Year’s Day all while reminding me to hunt for that old one lost in my purse that I wrote about yesterday (https://debbieupper.blog/2023/01/02/happy-new-year-one-day-and-one-step-at-a-time/ ). I did find it, still tempted to eat it because it’s not TOO old. But now that I have a new orange, should it be “out with the old” everything? Well not too sure about that, and certainly not before I took a photo… Carrying over old into a new year is not necessarily bad… I can at least try the juicy old fruit that took so long to develop, if not I’ll compost it back to the soil. 

Another example of good stuff from “old” last year is a “new to me” almost vintage mug gifted from my neighbor who is moving soon. She let me make a cup of tea in it from her keurig when I visited weekend mornings these last few weeks. How BLESSED to embrace some time together in person, steeped in love,  and now take our memories of visits with us in our hearts. Old friends are super best to carry into the new year, even if they themselves move forward into their own new experiences. God wants us ALL to be fruitful in life. 

BLESSED is the one whose delight is in the law of the Lord, and who meditates on his law day and night. That person is like a tree planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in season and whose leaf does not wither – whatever they do prospers. Psalm 1

The best “old” thing (which is hard to call a “thing”) to bring in and ring in the new year with IS the best old thing there ever was and is: LOVE. Love is timeless. Love conquers all. Love fufills one ultimate request commandment of God, to love Him back.

“Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?” Jesus replied: “ ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.” Matthew 22:36-40

If we listen to Psalm 1, knowing Jesus fulfilled the Law (a sacrifice of all time) and He fulfilled the prophecy of the Prophets, and if we do know how GOD IS LOVE, then we really do know that “Blessed is the one who delights”… Delights in LOVE, shares LOVE, appreciates God’s LOVE, and performs acts in LOVE. 

Love wins. And fruits of the Spirit become ripe for harvest. 

Let us make a NEW resolution EVERY DAY this year to find how TIMELESS LOVE applies to EVERYTHING. Every resolution of peace, get that from God. Every step we wait upon God to take, let it be stepped and steeped with LOVE. Pray Holy Spirit, please fill us all up. Let us love comfortably like a beloved old cup, fill us up and serve fresh love each day. Let us love uncomfortably too and fulfill and delight in the law of the Lord. 

Happy 2023 to you and me!

Delight in God and LOVE will set you free.

Amen 

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PS, what a delight to step into the new year with reading and writing about a “new to me” book chapter of the Bible, I finished Job in 2022 now in Psalms for 2023… what a delight of meditation on God’s Word. It’s also the lyrics of one of my favorite songs to sing from my old band, which I have framed. “I will delight in the Law of the Lord. I will mediate day and night. And like a tree firmly planted I’ll be, grounded in the Word.” – “Blessed is the one who follows the Way of the Lord. Blessed is the one.”

PPS – the old orange tastes just as sweet!