I’ve changed my address, don’t forward the mail!

“Toto, I have a feeling we’re not in Kansas anymore!” – Dorothy, from The Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum

There is nothing quite like a fresh start.

A new job, a new grade, a new relationship. Doesn’t matter what it is, there is such potential there for it to be something good. It’s like going to bed at the end of a horrible day only to wake fresh the next morning. Sometimes like with Dorothy and her tornado, a fresh start comes in a whirlwind of destruction. Other times it just comes with the sun slipping quietly up over the horizon.

“Tomorrow is the most important thing in life. Comes into us at midnight very clean. It’s perfect when it arrives and it puts itself in our hands. It hopes we’ve learned something from yesterday.” – John Wayne

Ever since I can remember I have loved art, and I praise God that He gave me at least a semblance of artistic ability. One of things that excites me is a clean canvas – it could an actual painters canvas, or something as simple as a clean piece of paper or a blank computer screen. Why? Because that area of space right there in front of you can literally become anything you want it to be.  A mural, a portrait, an abstract, a poem, a blog, a flyer to print out for a party.  No matter what it will be, it will always start as a clean canvas.

We’ve recently had a fresh canvas placed in front of us – we moved. It’s only a few blocks away, but to me it’s like staring at the white space and asking myself what medium I want to try – or what technique should be used. If nothing else it has presented us with a whole bunch of new opportunity. My wife knew months ago where the furniture would be placed and what feel the house would have. Our previous house was spread out over multiple floors and nothing seemed to work out well – no entertaining, no friends for dinner, nothing. But this house? This house really feels like home. It’s that clean white canvas just waiting for something to be painted or written upon.

One of the things that of course comes with moving, is updating your address with everyone and every company you do business with. They really do wanna make sure that not just the important stuff comes to you, but that every piece of junk mail or unsolicited catalog or magazine continues to attach itself to you – whether you want it to or not. And it’s hard to cut that stuff away because if you expect the good stuff to get forwarded, then the post office has to forward the rest too. I wish there was an option on the form you fill out with the post office that said, “Yes I’ve moved, but I’m leaving all the junk mail behind.”

“Then He who sat on the throne said, “Behold, I make all things new.” – Revelation 21:5a

The good thing about the fresh start that comes with a move, is that unlike real junk mail, you don’t HAVE to forward your emotional or spiritual junk mail. It’s like you are saying, “All of that stuff that went wrong there, nope it’s not coming with me.” And there’s nothing wrong with that, is there? Who can blame you for wanting to leave past mistakes or memories behind, or simply just believing that your life can be better here than it was back there? No one.

Think about this for a minute… so many that God used in the Bible, He first told to move from where they were to someplace else that He wanted them to be.  Noah, Abraham, Jacob, Joseph, Moses, Esther – the list goes on and on.  There is just something to the fact that MOVING to a new location does more than cause you to FEEL new.

In Dorothy’s case, her story brought her back to her family’s farm in Kansas, and back into the arms of the people she loved. For me it seems that our move has brought our family a little bit closer. Back to board games, fishing, sit down meals, and just watching the sunset together on our dock at the end of the day. It also seems at least like some of that junk mail didn’t follow me in our move, and that’s a really good thing.

I wonder if Dorothy had that problem when her house was transported to Oz. Wait, did she ever even check her mailbox?

Oh well, at least John Wayne got it right.  Then again, he always did.