Religion column: Christ makes difference for all eternity

Oh … the days of buying schoolsupplies. The stores are overflowingwith school supplies. Notebooks,paper, pencils, glue scissors, rulers,crayons, totes, and backpacks areall stacked several feet high on thestore shelves. A new school year issynonymous with a new teacher,new supplies, new clothes and anew chance to do better.

Never did Mother even considerhaving us use the school suppliesfrom the previous year. Big Chieftablets were the thing of the day.We needed the wide ruled kind andduring those early grade schoolyears, they insisted that we buy thebig fat pencil. Of course we had tohave new crayons. The school supplylist also specified a cigar boxfor our school supplies. My daddydidn't smoke cigars so we had nocigar boxes. So he always wentdown to the magazine store in theold Silver Grill at Main and 7th andthe man gave him two cigar boxes,one for me and one for Susie.

The promise of a new school yearalways brought the assurance to methat I had a chance for a fresh start.I could begin over. Math was notmy long point but with the newschool year, I made a commitmentto do my very best. I could begin allover again in spelling and try for Asall year on the spelling tests.Everything I had to show for Showand Tell would be different. I couldmake salt maps again and theywould be all new to the teacher. Icould be diligent on my penmanshipand hand in neatly written papersfrom the start. With new teachers,new classmates, a new room, newthings to learn, new shoes and newschool supplies, the guarantee of anew beginning was stimulating. Icould put last year and poor gradesin arithmetic behind me and striveto do my best in arithmetic that newschool year. That teacher didn'tlook at what I did the year before.She was just interested in startinganew in her class.

On a far greater scale that is whatChrist did for us. He gives us achance at a new beginning bychanging us from the inside out."Therefore, if anyone is in Christ,he is a new creation; the old hasgone, the new has come!" (2Corinthians 5:17)

Our past is forgiven. ThePsalmist wrote: "For as the heavensare high above the earth, so great isHis mercy toward those who fearHim; as far as the east is from thewest, so far has He removed ourtransgressions from us." (Psalm103:11-12)

With Christ as our Savior, ouradvocate, our guide, those thingswe did in the past are not heldagainst us. In school terms, thatmeans that last school year does notcount and we have a hope to do better."Praise be to the God andFather of our Lord Jesus Christ! Inhis great mercy he has given us newbirth into a living hope through theresurrection of Jesus Christ fromthe dead and into an inheritancethat can never perish, spoil or fadekeptin heaven for you." (1 Peter1:3-5).

With Christ, life can begin allover again and we can receive anew chance at a meaningful life.When we accept Christ, our sins areforgiven, our past is forgotten andwe are justified or made right withGod. It is just as if we had neversinned — we get a new start.

The school year experience isfundamental for a child. But a relationshipwith Christ makes a differencenot just for the school year butfor all of eternity.

Judy Brandon is a Clovis resident.