Spring is coming. Warmer winds are slowly exposing the autumn grass that lay buried beneath the snow. People say the warmth is a favourable start to the Mongolian New Year. Of course the New Year has already passed (it was a month ago), but friends are still chatting about the significance of this celebration.

Mongolian New Year, or Tsagaan Sar, is a time of new beginnings. Every family member, from the oldest to the youngest, is supposed to be involved. In the lead up to New Year there is lots of gift buying and food preparation. On New Year’s Eve families clean their homes from top to bottom and herders even clean out their livestock barns. That evening families gather for a special meal where they remember the blessings of the past year. They’re also supposed to lay aside all disagreements and repay debts as they renew relationships. At the same time they hope that the coming year will be filled with joy rather than sorrow and that they’ll be better people than they were last year.  

On New Year’s Day families visit their older relatives and friends. When we lived in the countryside we visited most of our friends during the three day celebrations and left each home with stomachs stuffed full of meaty dumplings, roasted mutton and fermented mare’s milk. In Ulaanbaatar the celebrations tend to be more low-key, although many people still wear colourful Mongolian dress and felt hats. And everyone grasps each other’s elbows and kisses one another’s cheeks as they offer the special holiday greetings of “Are you living peacefully?”

But some Christians are wary of the celebrations. We can understand their concerns — Buddhist elements can, and do, overshadow the celebrations making it tricky for Christians to focus on the new beginning that the New Year emphasises. However, perhaps the festival does offer opportunities to speak about the only life that can bring real change to our lives.

Unlike the harmony and self-betterment which people hope for, we are not calling people simply to come and clean up their lives, or work towards been moral or religious. Christianity is not an add-on option or even a system that rearranges our lives to make us better. But it is a new beginning; a complete new beginning from which each one of us must start. It is radical and involves a new birth where, by God’s Spirit, the old is rooted out and a new principle of supernatural life is planted inside us.

With this new consciousness we realise we no longer have to try to be good. Our identity has been changed and, turning from our own efforts to be good, we rejoice in God’s redemption.

The yearnings the Mongolians feel in the core of their beings cast long shadows. Their traditions reflect their desire for goodness; to live lives that are worthy. However these yearnings are not just confined to the Mongolians. There are parallels in every culture throughout world. They exist in every person, a desire for goodness that sends humans searching for true cleanness and acceptance.

And we have the answer. God, through His Son, has gifted us with new life, and He’s also given us the opportunity to pass this really good news on. We can’t make anyone a Christian, that’s God’s work. But we can give people opportunity to hear and as they hear we trust they will listen, think deeply and receive God’s new life.

Day-time temperatures are heading towards zero degrees Celsius, although the hillside beside our home is still bare — the rocks are grey and the heather dull and wiry. To the natural eye there is no sign of growth but although we cannot see beneath the surface we are certain that the heather’s roots are growing. And so we pray, “Lord let us see with your eyes and speak with your words.”