Old Time and New Beginnings

Interesting twist on yesterday's post: I found a different version of the hymn in my church hymnal. It adds a stanza and makes the first stanza a question instead of a statement. Makes for an entirely different reading, too, don't you think? And, ironically, in the midst of my "new beginning" ponderings, I attended a wedding this evening between two late septuagenarians (mother of two friends). They've only known each other a month, barely, but figured they needed to "gather their rosebuds while they may, Old Time is still a-flyin'." It was a lovely, funny wedding, full of music and laughter. I wish them all the best.

1
Is this a day of new beginnings,
Time to remember and move on,
Time too believe what love is bringing,
Laying to rest the pain that’s gone?

2
How can the seasons of a planet
Mindlessly spinning round its sun
With just a human name and number
Say that some new thing has begun?

3
Yet through the life and death of Jesus
Love’s mighty Spirit, now as then,
Can make for us a world of difference
As faith and hope are born again.

4
Then let us, with the Spirit’s daring,
Step from the past and leave behind
Its disappointment, guilt, and grieving,
Seeking new paths, and sure to find.

5
Christ is alive, and goes before us
To show and share what love can do.
This is a day of new beginnings;
Our God is making all things new.