A New Year. Fresher than a new blanket of snow on the ground.
And just as austere, in some ways.
Winter after Christmas can sometimes feel grey. The new year can look like a white canvas, a blank page–full of potential, but as I stare at it, I can often feel empty, nervous. It’s something akin to writer’s block. Stomach flutters. Pressure to do things differently. To not mar the page with something unfocused, un-brilliant. Wishing all the scattered bits of last year don’t have to follow me into this one. Still an icy chill inside from the questions pricking my heart like sleet. The flurry of Christmas activity is like the rush of first snow–exciting, breathtaking, entirely welcome. But by the new year, joy can be reduced to just a shred glittering bravely, like a forgotten ornament clinging to the Christmas tree a week later.
Christmas lends beauty to the new year–Jesus Christ came down to give us Himself, to save us from sin and the empty, dark nothingness of life without Him. And it’s still just as true a week later. Rather than being empty, can’t we just be open?
There’s a vulnerability to the open hands, the face turned toward the sun that’s barely rising. But it’s better, braver than forgoing it all and wasting in worry, losing the opportunity to be there for sunrise.
Remember, God wasn’t ever afraid of beginnings:
“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing would have been or has been made. In Him was life, and that life was the Light of men. The Light shines in the darkness and the darkness has not overcome it!” -John 1:1-5
And out of our nothingness, God has birthed His greatest Miracles.
This new year, God is right where He has always been. Get close and hear Him. Let Him breathe on your empty canvas, your blank pages, your collection of questions. Spend time with the greatest Author, the most brilliant Composer, the supreme Creator/Redeemer of all time, who is making all things new.
It’s the sweetest sound, Father God breaking through the icy cobwebs of my own thoughts and embracing me in the morning quiet while snow gleams outside, ready for fresh footprints. “I’m with you” becomes not just an adage, but a powerful, true reality. He’s with me, in me, has set His Seal on me and invested His Name and Glory in me.
In all those who are His. We can come close and receive Him. He won’t leave us. He will stay and equip us Himself! And there’s nothing better. No better teacher, no path more exciting, no work more rewarding.
So ask Him for the new year. Remember and embrace His new year promises.
Begin again in me, Lord. Renew me. Make me freshly, powerfully, joyfully Yours.
In Jesus’ Name.