The tick of the clock groans, as the old year runs out of time.
I echo its groaning. As does all of creation—as it awaits its deliverance . . . redemption.
Can a year possibly be more tired . . . broken?
I have never been more happy to see a new year dawn!
Think of it: a fresh year, with new mercies—like each new day, I suppose.
So, isn’t it then just a continuation? Hasn’t God numbered all our days?
As much as we may want to put distance between us and last year—with all its pain, hardship, and disappointments—we can bring what was gained by them with us into the year ahead. Because, for those in Christ, suffering can strengthen and inform faith. And helps to form Christ is us. It deepens our relationship and trust in our Father. And holds within it transformative power.
But, like me, you might be sitting there looking into the new year with a boatload of questions. Questions about the state of the world. A world groaning under an ongoing pandemic. A world marred by escalating violence, suicide rates, and inflation. And a world experiencing a decline of morality and commitment to discipleship.
Will anything change?
Jesus too looked out at the horrific world about Him—carrying in His body the Hope for the world . . . and hope for change.
He endured more suffering than we could ever know. Yet endured . . . and overcame—so that we won’t “lose heart.”
And He sealed us with the Spirit—Who also imparts power and important truths for our faithfulness, like:
“The Son is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. For in him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things have been created through him and for him. He is before all things, and in him all things hold together. And he is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning and the firstborn from among the dead, so that in everything he might have the supremacy. For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross” (Col 1:15-20).
God is timeless, outside the bounds of time. Eternal. And entirely Other. Yet He entered into time, in Jesus, to help us walk through this groaning time and creation with us.
The Creator of all things holds all things together. In His supremacy, and through His blood, He is reconciling all things to God.
This is the answer to all our questions—as we “continue in [our] faith, established and firm, and do not move from the hope held out in the gospel” (Col 1:23).
And hope is the "happy" to every new year.
The Sovereign Lord is the Hope for our endurance, as time groans one tick closer . . . one day closer . . . another year closer to Hope’s glorious Day of Redemption.