Download the January 2009 Messenger

GREETING THE NEW YEAR

Pastor Eileen Freeman
January 2009 Messenger

As the old year comes to an end, I derive great contentment and inspiration from a simple activity. If New Year’s Eve is a clear night, I go for a late night walk with my son.

It is such a pleasure to be outside in the crisp, cold air; to hear only silence; to see the sky bright with stars. As we walk, we sometimes talk, but mostly we just soak in the still, silent loveliness of night. In those quiet moments I am filled with the joy and peace that come from being part of this wondrous world. I am com- forted by the awareness that the entire universe exists within the order created and sustained by God. I know that I can depend on God’s faithful presence in my life, just as I can count on the divinely estab- lished schedule of nature’s times and seasons.

Reassured and reinvigorated, I return to my home to watch on TV the descent of the glittering globe in Times Square and greet the turning of the year with hope.

This is no doubt, why I find the following “Prayer for the month of new beginnings”— from a source now long forgotten—the perfect way to start the New Year. I offer it to you with my wish that God will bless you through the winter, spring, summer and autumn that lie ahead.

Heavenly Father,
At midnight
When the old year dies
And the new comes
bounding in,
I like to be away from the
clatter of celebration,
In the country,
Outdoors.
For I have found that
It is in nature, Lord,
In your real world
That I touch reassurance.
When I stand outside
Close to the earth
In the good cold air,
I draw strength from
knowing
That in the next twelve
months
The snows will go
The buds will burst
The heat will rise
The leaves will fly,
That all these things will
happen
According to Your schedule
And in your time;
That there is order in Your
universe,
And that I am part of it.

Happy New Year!
Pastor Eileen