New years, new creations.

Some friends with the "Old Man," New Years Eve 2005

Ecuador has a tradition for New Years Eve: At midnight the hombre viejo or "old man" is burned. This scarecrow/dummy is created by stuffing a set of clothes with newspaper or straw, and finished off with shoes, gloves, and a mask. The hombre viejo is then doused with gasoline and burned at midnight. This signifies saying goodbye to the old - of last year - and welcoming the new. It is a time of great celebration, even more than Christmas, with fireworks painting the sky and firecrackers snapping and dancing in the streets.

This year, the duality of old and new, goodbye and welcome, lays heavy on me. At the end of 2013, my dear friend and adopted "grandma"  Bobbie Borman passed into glory. She and her husband served the Cofan tribe of Ecuador for decades. She touched so many lives and will be missed dearly. On the 2nd of January, my niece Molly was born. She is welcomed with great joy. New life. 

The New Year also reminds me: "Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation - the old has gone, the new has come" (2 Corinthians 5:17). Just as we burn the hombre viejo to say goodbye to the old year and greet the new, we put to death our old sin nature and live our new lives as children of God. Grandma Borman was a woman well acquainted with this. She desired greatly to leave her old sin and grow in holiness in Christ. A woman of prayer and unceasing love, she left both a legacy and an example to follow.

With her passing, I have been thinking a lot about death. Chicago is a place that is full of death - stories of shootings and accidents and murders are constant. Right my news app gives me headlines of "At least 5 hurt in city shootings", "Infant girl's death investigated in Barrington," "Autopsies: 2 died from cold exposure" and even "Peacock dies after escape from petting zoo."

Throughout the day as at odd moments I am reminded of Grandma Borman's death, I also feel a twinge of jealousy - she is in glory with our Lord, something I long for. Even as I cry, I smile to think of the joy she must be experiencing. But it brings to mind even more all those who encounter death without this hope. And I am reminded that this is why I do what I do. "Since then, we know what it is to fear the LORD, we try to convince others." We know what it is to have hope in Christ - how can we not share this with those who don't?

This support raising stage feels much like the "already-not yet" of our Christian lives. I am already part of ICI but not yet at ICI. I am already in ministry representing God's heart for missions to the Church, but not yet in hands-on ministry with the kids God has laid on my heart. We are already saved and justified, we are being sanctified, but we wait in eager expectation to be glorified and to be with our Lord.

Grandma Borman, sing a Hallelujah for me!