We need love’s tender lessons taught
As only weakness can;
God hath his small interpreters;
The child must teach the man.
Alone to guileness and love—
That gate shall open fall;
The mind of pride is nothingness
The childlike heart is all!1
We do not really know what the New Year will bring, but we can proceed by our faith. The Psalmist was musing about some of these things and out of his musings came one of the most magnificent Psalms in the Psalter that of Psalm 8: “O LORD, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth! You have set your glory above the heavens.” Then this: “From the lips of children and infants you have ordained praise” (Psalm 8:1–2a).
Jesus Himself was similarly musing one day during His sojourn on earth. In a prayer, He said to His Father: “I praise you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and learned, and revealed them to little children” (Matthew 11:25).
The season through which we have just been passing is about a child—the Child. It’s primarily for children—young children, as well as for those who, with childlike faith, worship at the manger and then put their hand into the hand of God and move confidently into the New Year.
A Double Future
January 02
The month of January, particularly the first few days of the month, is often felt to be a time to look forward. People make New Year’s resolutions which, sad to say, are seldom kept . . . and it’s a time for planning. As I am sure most of you know, January is also a time for reflection, a time for looking at what has recently been done. The name of the month January indeed is taken from Janus, the Roman god of beginnings, who is represented as an idol with two bearded heads set back to back—looking backward and forward.
The story is told of a group of people looking back at particularly memorable moments in their lives. One talked of his first job, another of getting through university, another of being discharged from the army, and then a grandfather mentioned that his was becoming a grandparent and realizing something of him was going into the future.
Ours is a double future actually—a future that we make for ourselves and then a future in which we have an influence on others by the way we live. As C.S. Lewis puts it: “The future is something which everyone reaches at the age of sixty minutes an hour, whatever he does, wherever he is.”
God’s people in the day of the prophet Jeremiah were languishing as virtual slaves in Nebuchadnezzar’s Babylon. God gave Jeremiah the message for the exiles, one of the finest moments in Scripture in Jeremiah 29:11: “ ‘For I know the plans I have for you,’ declares the LORD, ‘plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.’” How to ensure that promise? God’s message continues in verses 12 and 13: “ ‘Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart.’”
“Plans to give you hope and a future” . . . your own and those whom you influence.
Something New
January 03
There is an interesting story concerning the history of the Royal Hotel in Calgary in 1892. At that time the Royal Hotel was the area’s most imposing structure. It proclaimed itself the finest hotel west of Winnipeg—although they hung blankets from the ceiling in place of walls. In any event, that year, 1892, the hotel became ultramodern. They installed newfangled electric lighting. They also hung a sign which read: “Do not attempt to light the bulbs with a match. Simply turn key on wall by the door. The use of electricity is in no way harmful to health.”
We are all a little tentative about something new, whether it’s electricity, or the latest in computer technology. We have to prove whether or not it’s better than the old way.
Early in his Gospel, Mark tells of reaction to Jesus on perhaps the first trip of His ministry to Capernaum. He taught in their synagogue and startled them with His knowledge and caring . . . he healed a man with an evil spirit. Mark writes: “The people were amazed at his teaching, because he taught them as one who had authority, not as the teachers of the law” (Mark 1:22). “Jesus’ teaching” was—and is—new.
The old Jewish law was an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth. Said Jesus, “You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I tell you: Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you” (Matthew 5:43–44).
Indeed as the Apostle Paul puts it, the one who follows His way is a new creation . . . a new person.
Sufficient Grace
January 04
Many of you are familiar with the remarkable life of Helen Keller. As a baby, she went through a terrible illness that deprived her of both sight and hearing, and soon she became mute. When Helen was six, her parents sought the advice of Alexander Graham Bell regarding her education, and as a result, Anne Sullivan became her teacher. Through Miss Sullivan’s diligent efforts and the efforts of others, Helen Keller eventually was able to go to college and graduated with honors.
Helen Keller’s greatest achievement of course, was the help she was able to give those who were similarly disabled. Her driving force was her Christian faith.
During His three–year ministry, Jesus healed many. He opened blind eyes and cured some who were paralyzed. But He was not able to reach all of Palestine’s sick . . . nor were all able to reach Him. God still heals, but not all experience a miracle. Helen Keller’s miracle was not that she was given new sight, new hearing, but that despite the handicaps, she was able to accomplish a great deal and, in particular, to greatly help others.
The Apostle Paul, surely one of the finest Christians who ever lived, writes that he asked God three times to heal him of what he called his “thorn in the flesh,” and each time God responded: “My grace is sufficient for you” . . . and that grace is offered to each of us as we look up and out to Him. Around us we see many examples of overcoming faith, “the victory that overcomes the world.” As God promised the people of Asher in the Old Testament: “Your strength will equal your days”
From the Beginning
January 05
In the Old Testament book of Deuteronomy, there is a verse that just fits the beginning of a new year: “It is a land the LORD your God cares for; the eyes of the LORD your God are continually on it from the beginning of the year to its end” (Deuteronomy 11:12).
God’s people Israel had a centuries–old promise from God that one day they would possess a homeland far beyond their wildest dreams. After languishing for over four hundred years in Egypt, God had seen to their deliverance, and they were on their way to Canaan, the Promised Land. They roamed the wilderness for over forty years before their children stood on the bank of the Jordan River, hesitating before crossing into Canaan.
Here the promise of God rings in, as it were, a marvelous new year: “The land you are entering to take over is not like the land of Egypt, from which you have come, where you planted your seed and irrigated it by foot as in a vegetable garden. But the land you are crossing the Jordan to take possession of is a land of mountains and valleys that drinks rain from heaven” (Deuteronomy 11:10–11).
His promise to us in this land as we enter the new year, as surely as we place our faith in Him, is not only an earthly Promised Land, but an eternal one—which is far better. They both have Heavenly spiritual showers of blessing. We are assured that God will be with us continually . . . from beginning to end, here and in eternity, which has no end.
Poet John Oxenham’s words seem to chime in for those of us who