Paul Graves: Advent signals new beginnings, even second chances

Editor’s note: This is one in a series of occasional letters by columnist Paul Graves to his grandchildren.

Dear Katie, Claire and Andy,

Happy New Year! Well, actually tomorrow, Dec. 2, is the real start to the New Year.

What? You mean to tell me that Jan. 1 is the first day of the New Year? Yes, I guess it is. But so is Dec. 2.

Before I confuse you even more, it’s helpful for you to know that tomorrow is the beginning of Advent, the time of preparation for Jesus’ birth.

And Advent is the beginning of the year for most Christian churches. So tomorrow is like the first day of the New Year for Christians.

Both dates signal new beginnings, sometimes even second chances.

I don’t want to add to your confusion, kids, but there are even more “new years” than just these two.

Some countries have different new year celebrations than Jan. 1. (I know you’ve heard of the Chinese New Year.)

And most religions in the world use new year dates to celebrate new beginnings. The Jewish religion, for instance, calls its new year Rosh Hashana. That’s Hebrew for “head of the year.” It’s a time when Jewish folks celebrate God’s yearly renewal of the world. I like that.

I mention Rosh Hashana mostly because I was looking at a few passages in the Jewish Bible (we call it the Old Testament). They talk about the amazing vision of what God wants our world to become and about how God is always working to make that vision come true.

Both passages are in the book written by the prophet Isaiah, way back 700 to 800 years before Jesus was even born. Maybe you’d like to look at those passages with your parents (or by yourselves, Katie and Claire, since you’re getting to be so grown up).

The first one is Isaiah 65:17-25. God says “I will make a new earth and new heavens…”

Then we read about the wonderful things God plans to create in this new earth. It’s a wonderful vision, kids; one that I am sure God wants us to be involved in helping every day to make it come true.

The second passage is Isaiah 11:6-9, and looks a little like the last part of the first passage. Here, God talks of animals who we usually think of as enemies eating together and even sleeping side-by-side. Little babies will safely play next to poisonous snakes. Wow!

This is Isaiah’s way of saying humans and animals will no longer be afraid of each other. That’s a pretty cool vision, isn’t it?

It is also part of the vision of peace that Jesus’ birth announces to the world. You will hear about that vision in worship every Sunday of Advent.

What I think is also very cool about this vision of peace, kids, is that it doesn’t wait around for us to say “Happy New Year” on a certain day.

Every day is a time for new beginnings. Every day, you can start again to do things that are loving, and that bring a little touch of peace into your hearts or the heart of someone else.

I hear that in your voices every time we talk on the phone and we ask you about how your day in school was, or at piano lessons, or whatever. Claire, if Grandma and Grampa forget to ask you about your day, you are bold enough to ask us: “Have you forgotten something?”

It is obvious to us that every day is important to each of you. Terrific! Every day should be important to all of us.

When we make every day a “Happy New Year” day, it reminds us just how many second chances we have to start over again, and to be joyful. I think that is part of God’s vision of peace for us.

Love and peace to each of you,

Grampa