Brand Spanking New

When does something cease to be new anymore?  A new year will remain "new" as long as I continue to accidentally write the date with the recently expired year.  A new car will still feel like one as long as the "new car smell" lingers.  My wife and I were considered newlyweds during our honeymoon, as we opened our first joint bank accounts, and as we awkwardly referred to each other as "my wife" and "my husband" in public.  After our son was born, we became new parents, but the label of freshness and inexperience wore off fairly quickly, say, around the time when we started to shop for cheaper diapers a couple of months into parenthood.  As a physician, I was the new doctor on the block until my patients and their families finally stopped asking, suspiciously: "So, how long have you been a doctor?"  I've aged visibly since then...soon they'll start asking when I'm planning to retire.


One thing's for sure - new things don't stay new forever.  I spent innumerable hours at the Kaiser Foundation Hospital - Bellflower Medical Center, which was a state-of-the-art medical facility that was featured in national magazines when it opened in 1965.  The hospital earned top honors nationally in multiple measures of quality well into its final years as a full-service hospital, but it was starting to show its age after decades of service.  The facility was replaced in September 2009 by the brand spanking new, 300-million dollar, state of the art Kaiser Foundation Hospital - Downey Medical Center, located about a mile away.  Planning and construction of the hospital took years, and there was palpable excitement and anxiety as transition to the new medical center occurred.  Were the rooms clean, modern, and well appointed?  Check.  Elevators working?  Check. Medical equipment and monitors functioning properly?  Check.  Cafeteria food better than the stuff from the old hospital?  Uh, check.  So far, so good.  How long will it stay new?  No idea.


I pulled my car into the hospital doctor's parking area a few days later, and saw the familiar ambulances parked in front of the emergency department.  The ambulances looked fine, but upon closer inspection, there were huge dents formed into both of the twin steel columns that led to the ambulance entrance.  It didn't take long before careless ambulance drivers were backing up their vehicles right into the columns as they approached the building.  So much for "new".  Large water-filled barricades were seen protecting the entrance the next day.


Although we live in a decaying world where "new" becomes "old" just as quickly as "tomorrow" becomes "yesterday", the apostle John saw a glimpse of the world to come that will one day replace our current existence:


Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more.  And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.  And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, "Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away."

And he who was seated on the throne said, "Behold, I am making all things new." Also he said, "Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true."  (Revelation 21:1-5)

Unlike our current dwelling, God's new creation will stay new forever.  At least there won't be any ambulances there.