I hope the past year has gone well for you and the new one will be even better. I think New Year’s Day is a great holiday. It tends to get the short end of the appreciation stick because it comes right after Christmas and can easily be overshadowed by it (i.e., compare the number of Christmas songs to songs about the new year). It’s not a surprise then that the day is viewed by many as little more than the finale of the Christmas holiday season—the last day before they head back to work and the real world.
However, I think New Year’s Day is unique and should stand alone for a couple of reasons.
First, it’s an accomplishment. Why do people celebrate the new year? One reason would be that the ringing in of a new year means that they have made it through the past year and to another one. They’re starting another lap of this glorious adventure we call life. That may not seem like much to those who take it for granted, but for those who view life as the gift it is, it’s a fabulous opportunity to look back, count your blessings, and thank God as you joyfully anticipate the coming year.
And that brings us to the second reason why New Year’s Day is unique—the hope and promise represented by the new year. Before us are twelve months that are unstained by disappointment and untouched by tragedy. There’s something cathartic when we mentally (or physically) discard the old calendar and replace it with one that is clean of failures, bright with promise, and new with hope.
But the new year is about more than hope, it is also about resolution. Responsible people realize that if things are to be better in the new year, there are some things they must actively partner with God to accomplish and so we have New Year’s resolutions. What better time to rededicate yourself to continual growth—no matter how messy the coming year might be.
Hope and resolution—hopeful resolution . . . that’s not a bad way of describing the disciple’s life, for with Jesus our lives are full of both. The Scripture speaks of God giving us a “new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead” (1 Peter 1:3). Our hope is as alive as our Lord! Out of this hope we live for Him—we follow our new birth with a new life—one of hopeful resolution.
Here’s wishing your life is one of hopeful resolution in this year and all the years to come.
A Taste of Grace with Bruce Green 