The Year Changes

Time changes all things except time itself. The number changes each year, as now, but the flow of time coming toward us remains a continuing movement unimpeded. I’m not going to say 2020 was all loss or all gain, but the numerical change this year has a ring of hope in it. God’s providence guarantee’s change as time flows. What change may come is ultimately in His benevolent and gracious hands.

Solomon said: “The end of a matter is better than its beginning; Patience of spirit is better than haughtiness of spirit.”  Ecclesiastes 7:8

One blessing I think many of us can claim from the year 2020, is how it took much haughtiness from so many and gave back to us more patience. I think we win in this trade-off.

It also took lives from some of our families physically, and changed lives drastically in other ways. I would like to keep in memoriam all those who’s lives were affected in the most sad and hurtful ways. I lost a few friends and nearly lost my sister to the virus. Remembering God’s ways are different, we can also be sure that God’s ways are the only ways that end perfectly when all things end.

Read again the story of Noah, which assures us of God’s commitment to human survival on earth. He is committed to the well-being of His creation. As the hymn reminds us, “This is my Father’s world!”

Listen to what He said: “While the earth remains, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night, shall not cease” (Gen. 8:22). The world God has created has a rhythm to it. The seasons are established; it’s always darkest just before dawn. Creation’s reliability and sustainability are grounded in God. As the Westminster Confession of Faith reminds us, “God—the great Creator of all things—upholds, directs, disposes, and governs all creatures, actions, and things, from the greatest even to the least.”

The pessimist look down, the fearful look around, but who is in Christ always look up. So, yes, I remain optimistic for what comes to us from Christ, for it has already passed through His perfectly discerning goodness.

~G.W., Be richly blessed by Almighty God in Christ this coming year, according to His faithful mercy and grace!

Happy New Year!