Happy New Year, kind of - Thai style! Our new exchange student daughter from Thailand, Taew, has been bravely dealing with our continued snow and cold, windy conditions.
However, these last three days, her very large family and countrymen have been whooping it up with the Songkran Festival - a national celebration whose main theme is renewal or rebirth.
"The idea is that as the old year gives way to a new one, it is a time to give thanks to elders and others who have bestowed acts of kindness upon you in the past year, and conversely, to expel all the bad luck and look forward to the good times the coming year will hopefully offer." Everything old and useless gets thrown out and people are drenched in water as a way to celebrate cleansing and renewal.
On learning of this, I poured through the internet, if not just to find pictures of people in extremely hot weather and sigh.
But, I thought further, what time is NOT good for renewal and rebirth? Now is a good time! Now is a good time for gratitude and appreciation and repentance and new ideas!
- Isa 43:19 Behold, I will do a new thing; now it shall spring forth; shall ye not know it? I will even make a way in the wilderness, and rivers in the desert.
- II Cor 6:2 Behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation.
- Rev 21:5 Behold, I make all things new.
- Lam 3:22 It is of the Lord's mercies that we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not. They are new every morning: great is thy faithfulness.
To share your thoughts on this or to explore this idea further, please feel free to be in contact with me, add your own comments below, email this article to a friend, or add to the healing finds and sites on the web to the right.
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