It’s really the end – at least of this year

Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead. Philippians 3:13                                                                                                                                                       

This is it – the last day of December and the last day of the year.

There’s always something nostalgic about the last day of anything, whether it is the last day of school when you bid farewell to all of your friends, the last day of your term in the military, the last day of work before you retire or the last day you live in a house.

In reality, we would like to hold on to the past, which is no more realistic than thinking we can stop the future from coming. Yesterday is your friend; tomorrow is unknown and uncertain. The unknown tomorrow may hide some dark, lurking monsters that threaten you. It’s always what you don’t know or haven’t experienced that appears to be far worse than what you do know.

Here’s an insight that may help you deal with the unknowns of the coming year: Nothing takes God by surprise. Tomorrow morning when you rise and look out the window, realizing that a new year is upon you, understand that God stands there to welcome you and walk with you into the new and perhaps frightening world you must face.

Taking inventory of where you are and where you want to go is valid and important. Take time to reflect on this past year and the goals you want to accomplish with God’s help in the coming year. What Isaac Watts, the English pastor and hymn writer, prayed nearly 300 years ago is still our hearts’ cry today. Remember the words of the hymn he gave us which goes, “O God, our  help in ages past,/ Our shelter from the stormy blast,/ And our eternal home.”

Grace and peace to you from him who is, and who was, and who is to come, and from the seven spirits before his throne, and from Jesus Christ, who is the faithful witness, the firstborn from the dead, and the ruler of the kings of the earth. To him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood, and has made us to be a kingdom and priests to serve his God and Father – to him be glory and power for ever and ever! “I am the Alpha and the Omega,” says the Lord God, “who is, and who was, and who is to come, the Almighty.” Revelation 1:4-6, 8