It's a New Year: fresh starts; new beginnings.
I like this CS Lewis quote as I sit on the fringe of 2025:
"The past is frozen and no longer flows, and the present is ALL LIT UP WITH ETERNAL RAYS (all these capital letters are my emphasis)."
Yep, we can't do anything about the past, but there is a great big PRESENT all ready for us to unwrap.
I know many who are fearful of what's in that package, but Oswald Chambers addresses that, as well:
"Faith never knows where it is being led, but it loves and knows the ONE who is leading."
That's why, as Jesus-followers we can live in the now, looking at the future without fear or dread. We know the one who KNOWS ALL THINGS, has been there before us, and is working all things for our good; because He IS GOOD!
Sigh.
Welcome 2025 and all you bring...
XXXXX
With Christmas over, and all the trimmings packed up and put away in tubs to wait for another year, you'd think my mind would stop dwelling on Advent.
Yet here we are in what is known as Christmastide (the season we call "The Twelve Days of Christmas"), beginning Christmas Eve.
So, it's only right to still be pondering how we live between two Advents, as we continue to study the first (and the people who lived it).
This morning, I was re-reading Luke 1, which heralds the Christmas story.
I stopped again at the story of the birth of John the Baptist (Jesus' forerunner and cousin).
There are a few interesting sentences starting where Zechariah writes the words, "His name is John (v. 63)"
The audience standing around this newly parented couple were curious, wondering, "what next..."
Then Luke records for us these words:
"All these things (regarding the birth of John) were talked about through all the hill country of Judea. All who heard them laid the stories up in their hearts, saying, "What will this child be?"
I think every parent looks at their newborn babe and wonders the same...echoing the same question throughout the early years with a great deal of hope.
"What will this child be?"
We even ask it of ourselves, "I wonder what I'll be when I grow up?" I'm still wondering...
John knew the answer to that question from an early age.
He'd figured it out, and it was all tied up in the life of his cousin, Jesus.
Who he would be depended entirely on Jesus.
If I'm faithful in pondering my own identity, the same is true.
Who I am depends entirely on Jesus...
Ah, then, how I live between two advents reflects this, as well.
XXXXX
In John 1, John the Baptist is asked this question by the priests and Levites: "Who are you?"
This is how John answers the question, first asked by his neighbors, then by the religious leaders:
"I am the voice (John 1:23)."
That's it.
Just a voice.
A voice crying out in the wilderness to make straight the way of the Lord.
That's all he was ever meant to be.
That's all he wanted to be.
I've not heard of any little ones, when asked what they want to be when they grow up, answer: "Oh, a voice."
For one thing, voices aren't seen, just heard....and most of us want to be seen, known, valued.
For another...depending on what the voice says, it raises a lot of opinions (some very under-appreciated).
Yet, John the Baptist sets for us an example of who and what we are to be, first and foremost, as we live betwixt and between two Advents.
A voice crying in the wilderness of this world:
"Here He is, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world (John 1:29)."
Yes, Jesus loves us - and we are to live loved.
Yes, Jesus set us free - and we are to live in that freedom.
Yes, Jesus made us citizens of heaven, children of the one True God, and we are to live like it!
But, like John, as Jesus-followers, we are to be THE VOICE, making straight the way to the Savior - our Lord.
New Year's Goal.
