Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!
(2 Corinthians 5:17)

Water. All Noah can see is water.

You can relate. You've known your share of floods. Flooded by sorrow at the cemetery, anger at the disability in your body, fear of the uncertainty of a pandemic. And you've needed what Noah needed; you've needed hope.

Sometimes all we need is a little hope. That's all Noah needed, and that's what Noah received. This is how the Bible describes the moment:

When the dove returned to him in the evening, there in its beak was a freshly plucked olive leaf! (Genesis 8:11).

Hope is an olive leaf — evidence of dry land after a flood.

Could you use some hope?

Could you use a fresh start?

At some point in life, we all could!

And the oh-so-welcome news of Scripture is this: our God is a God of fresh starts.

You've known your share of floods.
He is the God who told a weary and discouraged people:

See, I am doing a new thing!
Now it springs up; do you not perceive it?
I am making a way in the wilderness
and streams in the wasteland.
(Isaiah 43:19)

But these streams are streams of grace and mercy and love, not the floods that have burdened your heart. So, dear friend, our prayer for you is that you will experience a flood of God's grace to drive away your despair, disappointment, discouragement, and grief: