Spring cleaning

2 Corinthians 5:17, “Therefore, if any man is in Christ, he is a new creature, the old things passed away, behold new things have come.” Yesterday was the first day of Spring. I began to look around my house at things I needed to get rid of. I have many things I have held onto for years. There are still boxes of stuff from my move five years ago when I moved them from my other house. When my husband was in the military we moved frequently, usually every 18 months. I wouldn’t pack anything I didn’t use. Yet once out of the military I began to accumulate stuff. Things people gave me as gifts. Things that I thought I needed at some point in my life. When I moved from Utah to Illinois I got rid of a lot of things. But kept things that are now still in boxes. When I read the passage in 2 Corinthians 5:17, I was reminded that i am a new creature and old things have passed away. Why am I holding on to things that I don’t need or use. I think of the boxes still shut up in my laundry room. Are they there because I think one day I will need them? I haven’t needed them for five years. In our Christian walk, we hold on to things we don’t need. Maybe its anger or unforgiveness. Maybe its a part of our past we find hard to let go or give up. Luke 5:37-37 says, “No one puts new wine into old wineskins, otherwise the new wine will burst the skins and it will be spilled out and the skins will be ruined. But new wine must be put into fresh wineskins. And no one after drinking old wine wishes for new, for he says the old is good enough.” What are we keeping from our old self that doesn’t belong in the new creature in Christ? In Isaiah 38:1-2, Isaiah came to Hezekiah when he was mortally ill and said to him, “Thus says the Lord, ‘Set your house in order for you shall die and not live.’” It is time for us to set our house in order. We have accumulated things we do not need. We are a new creature in Christ and old things have passed away.