To a new thing in 2014

One of the most encouraging things about new years, new weeks, new days, new places, new jobs, is that word ‘new.’ Consciously or not, it offers us the hope of being able to start all over again. I wonder whether that’s why the Scriptures are full of God doing new things. For example, He makes a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert; He empowers the weak and shames the strong; He vindicates the foolish and humbles the wise. Perhaps most remarkable of all, He, the King of Heaven chooses for His precious Son to be born in the muck and filth of a stable, attended by goats and asses and impoverished shepherds. The wonderful hope of this beautiful season that we’ve been celebrating is that God has done a new thing—He has made a home among a people who have a hard time feeling at home here themselves. In the midst of the ambition and striving and disappointment and homework and housework, it all seems very unlikely that God really cares. And yet… God is now among us. The Word became flesh and made His dwelling among us. Or as Chesterton put it, “our peace is put in impossible things.” So rather than enfeeble our expectations this New Year, rather than try stage-manage what the next 12 months will bring, let’s all remind each other what we often forget: God is forever at work, bringing wild impossibility to bear on the things we struggle to keep under our own control. Here’s to something new, even impossible this season and in the New Year.