Pastor Jerry Blom
Have you ever heard of a DO-OVER? I can't remember now exactly where I heard that term but I have always liked the idea of what it stands for.When I'm playing golf with my boys we have a system of scoring that allows for do-overs.Here are a few.  When you tee off and you top the ball so that it doesn't go more than 100 feet, you get to go pick it up, tee it back up and do it over. If you hit your ball into the out of bounds area that is thick with trees or some other obstacle which prevents you from finding your ball, you get to estimate where it went out of bounds and drop your new ball there as if this is where the ball really did land. Then, if you putt your ball into the cup from more than 20 feet, you get to take an extra stroke off of your score. These last two aren't exactly do-overs in the traditional sense but they do represent that for which a do over stands.

Sadly, in life we don‟t always have the options of a do-over. Life doesn't always extend grace to the moments of our decisions, allowing us to say…oops…let me try that again. The young man who is on his way to prison to serve a sentence for vehicular homicide would love to have the opportunity for a do-over, he'd do anything to rewind the moment of his decision to drink and drive and allow that friend to drive him home instead.

No, life doesn't always give us the option for a do-over, there are consequences for our misdeeds and sins. But that doesn't keep us from really wanting to have a chance for a do-over, does it? If only…I should have…I could have… and, I would have… are common expressions in our daily conversations as we look back on the times and experiences of our lives.

We especially pepper our conversation with those concepts these days as the New Year of 2010 begins to unfold onto the canvas of our lives. Each New Year God gives us to live becomes another opportunity for new beginnings. Sometimes I wonder if this is why God designed time as it seems to be to us. He designed our days to pass year to year with the opportunity along the revolution of time for us to take stock of our lives and to seek a do-over from God. I don't believe this is too farfetched to consider  because as I read the Bible, I get this kind of a picture of God. God is a God of the do-over. In fact as I have been reading through the prophets in the last several months that is a theme that has become clearer and dearer for me. Just today I sat down for devotions and read from the prophet Zechariah chapter 9. In this chapter God extends a hand of do-over opportunity to his people. The description of this happening is cosmic as the Lord promises to undo all the semblances of power, prestige, and prosperity of the nations that surround his people. What is so wonderful about this opportunity for a do-over is that God tells Zechariah to write the promises of his personal involvement. God says by the prophet's pen… “But I will defend my house against marauding forces. Never again will an oppressor overrun my people, for NOW I am keeping watch.” (9:8)

We have just completed advent and if you think about it, advent is about God['s personal involvement to provide for the most important do-over any one of us could hope to have. We see that involvement in the baby in the manger, but the prophet Zechariah points us beyond advent when he writes. 9:9 Rejoice greatly, O Daughter of Zion!
 

2 Shout, Daughter of Jerusalem! See, your king comes to you, righteous and having salvation,
gentle and riding on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey. 10 I will take away the chariots from Ephraim and the war-horses from Jerusalem, and the battle bow will be broken. He will proclaim
peace to the nations. His rule will extend from sea to sea and from the River to the ends of the earth.

These are the familiar words that were fulfilled on Palm Sunday, which we celebrated as the season of lent concludes in the time of Easter. Dear brothers and sisters, we have finished our first advent together. It has been an inspiring season for me as I was again reminded of the incredible humiliation of our Lord being born into this world. But now we are speeding our way to Lent, where every new beginning becomes firmly established. As the New Year comes I would like to encourage you to take the opportunity for a new beginning in your life, a new beginning that will draw you closer to our Lord and prepare you, as the prophet Zechariah writes, “to sparkle in his land like jewels in a crown.”  9:16)