I would love to have been there, watching Lydia turn into a new creation. As our story begins, she has no idea who Jesus is. She worships and prays to God, but she doesn’t know Jesus, God’s Son, the Savior. But as she listens to Paul’s message about Jesus, the Lord opens her heart to believe in Christ. She is then baptized, along with her household, and she generously hosts Paul and his companions. What an amazing transformation!

This is what the Spirit of God loves to do—lead people to Jesus, ignite faith in them that Jesus’ death has rescued this broken world from sin, help them to know that the benefits of Jesus’ death and resurrection are theirs too, and change them to become like Jesus. Sometimes God works in the heart of an adult like Lydia. Sometimes he starts with a child of Christian parents, like me. In every case, it’s the start of a process, a lifelong journey of renewal in which we grow more and more like Christ.

Like Lydia, all who are “in Christ” are new creations, as Paul says in 2 Corinthians 5:17. They are being renewed and restored for full life with God. And, again, their transformation points to the colossal project God is working on, the renewal and restoration of his entire broken world. And when that is complete, his new creation will be fully here!