We're All Humans, Aren't We?

Ending the Year Well

Wow. Well, that was quick. Seems like Christmas was just yesterday. Wait, it was!

Lame jokes aside, it’s the perfect opening for a quick meditation on what to do in the weird holiday zone between Christmas and New Years’ Eve. Many people are still on holiday, vacation and may still have a couple more Christmas parties on the docket, but by large, most of us have turned our focus on to the party that is New Year’s Eve.

I’ve always enjoyed New Year’s Eve because of what the day represents. For many of us, living a year leaves us bruised and a bit beat-up with all the ups and downs that we’ve gone through. It’s an opportunity for all of us to slow down and take stock of what we’ve gone through in the past 364 (365 if it’s a certain leap year) days and turn our eyes towards the horizon of a year filled with possibilities and excitement.

There’s nothing quite as satisfying as turning a page filled with stuff to a pristine, new, empty, brightly white one. This metaphor is especially apt when you consider what God has done for us with Jesus whose birth we just celebrated yesterday. This is what God does with us daily.

Do you get that? God doesn’t wait until a year is over in order to allow us to turn over a new leaf, to discover a new path, to start a new job, to gain a raise, to move, to downsize, to have children, to raise children, to get grandchildren, to gain weight, to lose weight, to whatever we may want for ourselves to better ourselves for the new year.

Thanks to the birth and death of Jesus Christ, we get to celebrate a new year every day when we’re constantly forgiven for our constant mistakes as we constantly claw ourselves towards God. God says He forgets our sins. That inky, smudged, wrinkled, ink-ridden page that we can’t wait to turn once the ball falls on 11:59 p.m. on December 31? God turns that page over every time we ask Him to forgive us for our sinful rebellion against Him and His creation.

So, as we draw closer to 2014, I have selected a few Bible verses with this theme that I would love for all of us to meditate on to help us to finish 2013 well and look towards 2014 with all of its hope and possibilities.

For I will forgive their wickedness
and will remember their sins no more.
Hebrews 8:12

For as high as the heavens are above the earth,
so great is his love for those who fear him;
as far as the east is from the west,
so far has he removed our transgressions from us.
Psalm 103:11-12

“Yet you have not called on me, Jacob,
    you have not wearied yourselves for me, Israel.
You have not brought me sheep for burnt offerings,
    nor honored me with your sacrifices.
I have not burdened you with grain offerings
    nor wearied you with demands for incense.
You have not bought any fragrant calamus for me,
    or lavished on me the fat of your sacrifices.
But you have burdened me with your sins
    and wearied me with your offenses.

“I, even I, am he who blots out
    your transgressions, for my own sake,
    and remembers your sins no more.”
Isaiah 43:22-25

Embrace this truth. Accept it. Live it. See you next year!

-Matt