In a few more days, the bells and whistles, clanging and banging, yells and screams will declare it- the New Year! The proclamation of the new one simply means forgetting the old and pursuing relentlessly the promises that are on the way. Others could easily shrug their shoulders and say, “Forget it…leave the old behind.” For some though, they want to hang on to the memories a little longer. The happiness and joy it held, the beautiful smiles of caring friends, the surprises…big important ones, yes, but the little ones too…all the laughter that it brought all because God is really good!
Even the problems and the pain that came along with the previous year, the mistakes; they are worth what they were because they made us stronger, clearer, more defined. For this writer, I long to rush back to them, maybe handle them a little differently, be more gentle, more wise, more patient. Maybe I really don’t want the New Year. I just want another chance from the old one. For however callous, however painstaking, the old year was the gift of time from the Lord- our times together, the two of us.
Yes, it is wonderful that the God of all creation brings us a shining new package with each year that comes. While it’s new, people think of ways to resolve for this life to be worth living, only to lose the enthusiasm after a week, a month or two. That is probably because we have to wait for the New Year to be aware of our much- structured resolutions. But God’s love for us is new EVERY morning for great is His faithfulness, the Bible says. Every new day is wrapped in sunshine and laughter. In spite of the rain and the clouds that hide its rays, the sun does come out after a while. That is the promise of everyday. How inspiring its contents, how mysterious, how challenging, sometimes almost frightening, yet marvelous, on account of the One who holds everything about the day. Isn’t it amazing that we can only learn the beauty of one day as we live it? The unpredictability of everyday ends where the sovereignty of God begins. How dazzling! And so we do not have to desperately wait for the year to end so that we can look forward to the new beginnings that the incoming one carries. Early in the morning when we rise up and praise Him who gives us a new dawn; THAT is a new beginning.
Let us then enjoy, savor, endure, live each day as it is revealed to us. However tattered and distressing, the day’s end reminds us that there is another one to come.