Satisfy us in the morning with your steadfast love, that we may rejoice and be glad all our days.

Psalm 90:14

What is God’s secret for embracing the New Year? New Year’s Day requires much more than recovering from New Year’s Eve, indulging in football and food, dreading tomorrow’s daily grind, and reluctantly drafting New Year’s resolutions. God’s secret: Calendar Year meets Church Year! New Year’s Day is all about God’s Creation: orderly seasons with us as the crown of creation — a great reason for embracing the New Year as Psalm 90 affirms “that we may rejoice and be glad all our days.” But the same Psalm realistically describes our secret sins under God’s wrath and our limited life span (90:3-11). Enter the Church Year with its orderly rhythm of salvation through Jesus: The King comes (Advent). The Word was made flesh and dwelt among us (Christmas) as the Light for all nations (Epiphany).

Stephen J. Carter
Oakville, MO

Lord, Creator and Savior, help us embrace the New Year. Amen.

Reflect: A New Year Creation Response: “For all this it is my duty to thank and praise, serve and obey him.”

Read: Psalm 90 and 2 Corinthians 5:17