New Days, New Times

“We must be careful with our lives, for Christ’s sake, because it would seem that they are the only lives we are going to have in this puzzling and perilous world, and so they are very precious and what we do with them matters enormously.”   — Frederick Buechner

2017.  The very sound of this new year just a few days old seems strange to my eyes and feels strange coming off of my tongue.  If this new year is like most new years,  I will struggle for weeks to write this new year on checks or in correspondence.  This new year is  as new as a freshly fallen snow or as a new born baby. 

            There are a few times throughout the year when I think about time.  Of course, I think about time when we “spring ahead” or “fall back” when the time changes.  I also think of time when I travel to another part of the country.  In these days as we begin a new year,  I find myself thinking of time.    We tinker with time with our time zones and our time changes in the Spring and Fall.  Perhaps we are naïve to believe that it was humans that created time with our Rolex watches and our digital clocks.    Yet, when you really take away all the bells and whistles,  time is a gift of God.  God gave us time when he created the first day and night.

            And with great regularity and order, God gives us new times.  God gives us every day of our life a new day.  And every year,  God gives us a new time called a new year.    Psalm 118:24 captures the truth of new days and new times when it says:

This is the day that the Lord has made;  let’s rejoice and be glad in it.

This is a new year, a new day, and a new time. Use this new time preciously. May God give us wisdom to live wisely this new year and new time before us.  Have a blessed new year.-  Pastor Randy Wall

Prayer:  Lord and God, you give endings and beginnings.  Thank you for new days and new times.  Help us to use it for your glory;  through Christ our Lord. Amen.