New Year’s Eve
Sunday, December 31, 2017
Psalm 148
AULD LANG SYNE
On New Year’s Eve we stand at the threshold between the old year and the new. We remember the past and anticipate the future, move on from completed projects and begin new ones, seek closure on lost relationships and invitingly forge new ones, and say farewell to what has been and welcome what is yet to come.
Through it all – past, present and future – God is with us.
God was there when the worship service was especially powerful and I hummed hymns for the next three days. God was there when the Sunday school lesson just happened to be on a topic that had been on my mind. He was there in the magnificent sunset, when the check arrived in the nick of time, when a friend’s phone call came at a certain moment, and when that often-studied Bible verse finally became a little clearer.
God was also there when friendships ended, when I grieved lost loved ones and worried about the health of family members. He was there when I was overworked, when the news from the doctor wasn’t what I wanted to hear, and when I was tired, sad and stressed out. God was there even when it felt like He wasn’t.
I know that God will be with me, no matter what happens. In the mountaintop experience and in mourning, in sickness and in health, in sunshine and in darkness, He will be there.
After saying a nostalgic goodbye to the past, I can confidently await my future, because I know I am not crossing the threshold alone. God is with me. God is with all of us.
–Lisa McCarter