Exodus 12:1-2
And the LORD spake unto Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt, saying, This month shall be unto you the beginning of months: it shall be the first month of the year to you.

When God established the Passover with the nation of Israel, He set it up as a new beginning for them.  This was to be the first month of their year and would set the tone for everything that came after it.  They are leaving the bondage of Egypt and going forth because of the deliverance of God into something new.  And this occasion becomes the starting point for this new relationship between God and His people and a landmark for them to look back on often in remembrance.

Upon our salvation, God gives us new life in Christ, and that becomes the starting point for a life of service and obedience to the Lord.  It’s like a new year in our lives where we can start fresh and put our past and our old lives behind us and journey forward into something new and blessed of God.  It’s a time to start learning and growing and becoming all that God wants us to be.

God established time as a cycle, and as one year ebbs to its conclusion, a fresh one begins, and we start all over again.  God gives us seasons of renewal and revival.  There are always opportunities to start again, a chance to recommit, a time to wipe away the old and start with a clean slate no matter what the past may have held.  In His wisdom, God has provided us these moments to reflect and look back where we’ve come from, remembering His great work in our lives, but also to look forward to all that He has ahead of us.

God gives us new beginnings, whether it’s a new year, a new day, or just a fresh start after a hardship or trial.  He gives us new life in Christ and hope for a future even as He encourages to remember where we’ve come from and how He’s intervened in our lives all along the way.   So may we now go forward with faith and expectation, trusting God to go with us wherever that next step is taking us.  Let us live with an appreciation for those kinds of landmark moments that we can look back to for encouragement even as we anticipate all that God has in store for us.