| New(?) Year Friends in Christ,
We're a couple weeks into the new year, and so far it looks a lot like last year. So, what was all the excitement about? Why were my neighbors lighting up the sky with fireworks at the start of 2021?
It's easy to become disappointed when new things don't turn out the way we expect, or to become disappointed when the good things we want take longer to arrive than we'd like. Yet, there's good reason for God's people to celebrate the coming of a new year. All the milestones of life – graduations, retirements, anniversaries, completed projects, new beginnings – are worth celebrating precisely because they are milestones. Each marker in our lives shows a movement toward fulfillment of God's good plans. Each step of our lives draws us closer to His restoration. Each celebration is a celebration because we're nearer to the day when Jesus returns.
The landscape of 2021 may look familiar, but that's the reason we need to mark the new year. We need the reminder that there is movement. We need the reminder to look forward with hope. I don't know if 2021 will be good or bad, but I do know it will bring us closer to the picture of a wonderful future painted in Revelation 21.
Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, "Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away."
(Revelation 21:1-4)
here for you,
Matt Behrens, Pastor | |
