A New Year

 It is a new year!  I think that we sometimes celebrate weird things in weird ways.  After all, we count birthdays up from 1 and the longer they go the less we want to see them.  However, after celebrating my birthday this year and being one year older, I celebrate the new year and do not associate it with age.  We celebrate the transition between December 31 and January 1 with a dropping ball and fireworks.  And yet the passing of January 1 into January 2 or any day thereafter is essentially a meaningless passing.  When the clock hits midnight we begin a new day and have all sorts of goals that many set for how they will do better in certain areas in the coming year.  Why not start that on December 31?  Why not earlier?  Why do we struggle to keep our resolutions beyond the 4th of 5th?  We celebrate weird things in weird ways. 

The Jews had a new year too.  They celebrated it because the celebration marked the greatest redemptive act in their history.  It was to be 14 days before Passover.  It was to mark the time of the leaving of Egypt because of the greatness of their God.  I wonder what would happen if we marked and celebrated our new years based on the work that God had done for us.  Now that would be something worth remembering and celebrating.  

So, what has God done for you?  What is it that God has worked in your life in the last year?   Mark time this year by what God is doing in your life.  Count the days from what God has done and anticipate what God will do!