WATCHWORD:
May he grant your heart’s desires and make all your plans succeed. Psalm 20:4
Let the Spirit renew your thoughts and attitudes. Put on your new nature, created to be like God—truly righteous and holy. Ephesians 4:23-24
22 The faithful love of the Lord never ends! His mercies never cease. 23 Great is his faithfulness;
his mercies begin afresh each morning. 24 I say to myself, “The Lord is my inheritance; therefore, I will hope in him!” Lamentations 3:22-24
Meditation:
A Fresh, Clean Canvas
Oh, it feels sooo good! Oh, my. I love it! And smell it! Fresh and clean, oh so bright. Just look at that! It almost makes me weep for joy! Not a spot, not a single speck. Don’t do anything…just imagine.
Before you, a blank canvas, and you are Van Gogh. Or, you are Gian Bernini, or DaVinci, drinking in a great slab of marble before you, imagining, what? Yes, David! You are Michelangelo, looking up at the empty ceiling of this small, insignificant chapel, and imagining, just imagining what could bless this space?
Well, we are not Van Gogh, or DaVinci, or Packer, or C.S. Lewis, or Chambers, or Neuwen, but you are you and I am me, wrinkles, arthritis and all. Your eyesight isn’t quite what it was but the great thing is none of that matters. You are God’s creation. You are God’s masterpiece, even as you sit there and read this. You are a chosen one, and you have graces that you haven’t even explored. You are that fresh and clean space, standing on the threshold of this new year. The worries and the concerns are behind you and the promises of Christ are right there, with you, in front of you.
Yes, there will be good times, just beyond our reach at the moment. Good times with family and friends, just being social, in other words, loving others. There will be rough spots, adversity that can’t be avoided, but we shall overcome for we have our Lord. There will be those perfect moments, just moments, moments that stick in your mind like a snapshot you place on your mirror. There might be a fender-bender, or a splinter, the loss of a loved one, something we don’t want to think about. But if we did we would celebrate the life. There will be sun rises and sunsets. There will be laughter and there’ll be tears. Times of plenty and times that are lean. Through it all…God.
But for now, as we stand here on the threshold, it is just a blank, clean canvas, not a spot, not a single speak. Just a big slab of marble waiting our imagination. Just a tune in our thoughts without words. Just an inspiration, moving like a gentle breeze in our mind, considering story. But guess who the artist is? Who the sculptor is? Who the author is? Who the composer is? Did you say, you or me? No. The author of our story about to be written is our Lord.
Of course, we knew that. He is the maker of the stars, he is the fixer of broken dreams, and the granter of wishes. He is the rescuer of our helplessness and the comforter of our fears. He is way-maker, guide to our lost-ness. He is the miracle-worker and promise keeper, the Lord and Savior, and he is in charge of that blank canvas that represents out life. And because we know He loves us, we can rest in his mighty arms, and be at peace. This new year is His, and so are we. Amen.
Bulletin Board:
Starting the year with Irish jokes. Is that bad luck? Yours or mine?
What happened to the Irish man who, on new year’s day, thought about the evils of drinking. He resolved to give up thinking.
Paddy and Mick are walking down the road and Paddy has a bag of doughnuts in his hand, he turns to Mick and says: “If you can guess how many doughnuts are in my bag, you can have them both.”
New Year’s Agenda —
When the carols have been stilled,
When the star-topped tree is taken down,
When family and friends have gone home,
When we are back to our schedules
The work of Christmas begins:
To welcome the refugee,
To heal a broken planet,
To feed the hungry,
To build bridges of trust, not walls of fear,
To share our gifts,
To seek justice and peace for all people,
To bring Christ’s light to the world.
Closing Prayer:
Lord, You make all things new. You bring hope alive in our hearts And cause our Spirits to be born again. Thank you for this new year, For all the potential it holds. Come and kindle in us, a mighty flame. So that in our time, many will see the wonders of God, And live forever to praise Your glorious name. Amen.
