Recently, I did something I’d talked about doing for years. I took our 2014 Toyota RAV to a collision repair center.

This mid-sized SUV is dark blue.  It’s nicknamed The TARDIS. (see the explanation in the READ MORE section).

Most of its scrapes, dents, dings and scratches had accumulated over the last few years.

Scrapes against the side of our garage left behind indentations and white paint.

Glancing blows by hit-and-run menaces in parking lots left behind scratches, dings, and dents.

It was easy to ignore these slowly accumulating imperfections.

In fact, we had lived so long with this damage to The TARDIS that I was going to wait to get it fixed until after we drove from San Jose to Florida for the winter. Such collision body work would have been cheaper in Florida than in California.

Unfortunately, new damage to The TARDIS forced me to get it fixed here in San Jose.

What happened?

A driver (who shall remain unnamed) brushed the RAV against the garage while backing out. The driver’s-side front fender popped halfway off, just hanging there.

My wife wanted to use duct tape and glue to “fix” the fender for the 3,000 miles we will drive to Florida.

I refused.

I don’t have nearly enough faith in duct tape and glue to trust them to keep the fender on the TARDIS while we drive so far at such high speeds.

I had visions of the fender flying off The TARDIS when we were hundreds of miles from a collision repair shop.

The repairs weren’t cheap. I’m $4,000 poorer.

But The TARDIS looks great.

Now that they’re gone, it’s easy to forget all about those scrapes, bangs, dings, and scratches. All that matters is that The TARDIS is ready to press on to what lies ahead! (Philippians 3:13-14).

The beginning of each New Year is an excellent time to reflect on the “repairs” you should make to your life.

Some of your life’s scrapes, bangs, dings, and scratches have been accumulating for years.

Perhaps you’ve learned to ignore them.

Or, perhaps your life has been damaged recently in a way you dare not ignore. You realize that it will take far more than “duct tape” and “glue” to empower you to move full speed ahead as far as your hopes and dreams will take you.

The list of scrapes, bangs, dings, and scratches that may be marring your life is limitless. The list includes every kind of “trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword.” (Romans 8:35).

The beginning of each New Year is an excellent time to go to a “collision repair shop” to get all these scrapes, bangs, dings, and scratches removed. An excellent time to re-attach any loose “fenders” that will keep you from moving ahead at full speed as far your hopes and dreams will take you.

Where can you find such a “collision repair shop”?

How can you forget what lies behind so that you can press on to what lies ahead, straining to win the prize for which God has called you heavenward in Chris Jesus. (Philippians 3:13-14)?

By studying the Bible.

By praying.

By participating in a small group of fellow seekers and believers.

By participating in a church.

A “collision repair shop” can be any person, or any group of people, seeking the Way of Jesus.

These fellow seekers and believers in the Way of Jesus should “live in peace with each other.” (1 Thessalonians 5:13).

They should “warn those who are idle and disruptive, encourage the disheartened, help the weak, be patient with everyone.” (1 Thessalonians 5:14).

They should “[m]ake sure that nobody pays back wrong for wrong.” (1 Thessalonians 5:15).

They should “always strive to do what is good for each other and for everyone else.” (1 Thessalonians 5:15).

Furthermore, the cost to you at these “collision repair shops” in the Way of Jesus is always zero!

Why?

Because Jesus has already paid-in-full the cost of fixing every scrape, bang, ding, and scratch, and of re-attaching any fender.

As the Prophet Isaiah assured us many New Years ago:

Surely [the Suffering Servant] took up our pain

   and bore our suffering. . . .

[H]e was pierced for our transgressions,

   he was crushed for our iniquities;

the punishment that brought us peace

   was on him,

and by his wounds we are healed.

     (Isaiah 53:4-6).

His wounds of love have already paid-in-full for all of our collision repair work!

And, therefore, we can rejoice each New Year that we cannot be separated from the love of Christ.

Not by any kind of life’s scrapes, bangs, dings, and scratches.

Not by any kind of trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword. (Romans 8:35).

Why?

Because:

in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For . . . neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Romans 8:37-39).

READ MORE

For more reflections for the start of each New Year, please read my blogs about our cats: “Stop Drinking Stagnant Water!”, “Eat the Right Cat Food!”, and “Stop Stopping Me!”.

For more thoughts about Jesus as the Suffering Servant, please read my blog “What Did the Prophets Say Concerning the Messiah”.

For reflections based on my other car (nicknamed White Lightning), please read my blogs “Lightning from East to West”, “Directions Along the Way”, “Delays Along the Way”, “Dangers Along the Way—Narrow Roads”, “Dangers Along the Way—Heavy Traffic”, “Hiding in Plain Sight”, “Smoke from Distant Fires”, “Camouflaging Hideous Death with Fake Life”, “Dry Lightning”, “The Mighty River of Living Water!”, “Black Pine Trees”, “A Golden Sunset at the Golden Gate Bridge”, and “White Lightning: Storing Up Treasures in Heaven”.

In the classic BBC science fiction television series Doctor Who, the Doctor travels anywhere in space and time in The TARDIS. It looks like a deep-blue, old-fashioned London police box (which is similar to a deep-blue, enclosed telephone booth as they existed before everybody started using mobile phones; the type of enclosed phone booth in which Clark Kent used to change into Superman). Advanced technology enables The TARDIS to be much larger on the inside than on the outside. TARDIS is an acronym for Time And Relative Dimension In Space.