Contemplation

What lies ahead for the New Year? God only knows. I stand at the gate of the year as recently I stood musing at the tomb of St. John in
ancient Ephesus. I'm drawn to the contemplative side of things but 
life, the world, calls for action too - Holy Spirited action. Beyond
thinking about it, once shown comes the call to do - all, of course, out
of the primary call 'to be' as one of God's little ones. 

Safer Than a Known Way

The Gate of the Year

I said to the man who stood at the gate of the year
'Give me a light that I may tread safely into the unknown.'
And he replied, 'Go into the darkness and put your hand into the hand of God
That shall be to you better than light and safer than a known way!'

So I went forth and finding the Hand of God
Trod gladly into the night
He led me towards the hills
And the breaking of day in the lone east.

So heart be still!
What need our human life to know
If God hath comprehension?
In all the dizzy strife of things

Both high and low,
God hideth his intention."

 
This poem of by Minnie Haskins 1908 was a favorite of the late Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother. The opening four lines were used by her husband, King George VI, to open his Christmas address to the nation in 1939, just a few months after the start of World War II.

The End of Things

Can it be that the end of things paves the way for the beginning of the new? And yet it's hard to let go when the new is not yet apparent, has not yet arrived.

There is a certain inevitabity about the passing of the years, and of our days, but still we want to hold on, to hang back, to go back to what was. Even the Israelites, at one point in their wanderings, longed for the certainty of the old - though it were slavery - rather than the uncertainty of their present struggles and striving - and facing the unknowability of God's timing and will for any future entrance into Promise.

I wonder what my deep heart mostly fears as I face the days ahead . . .

Light at the year's end ? . . .

Am I - are we emerging to a better year or worse ?
And how will we move on - or hold on anyway?

Believing Anyway

It is our Lord Jesus alone who can bring hope in the darkness 
and faith in the most cold of days.