Stay up or go to bed? That’s the question that rings around my head every New Year’s Eve. Get a good night’s sleep and be fresh in the morning, or see the New Year in with friends and family? I have to admit, sleep generally wins, but we’ll have to see how this year pans out.

Whether you celebrate it or not, the move from New Year’s Eve to New Year’s Day has a significance in our calendar. It marks the end of an old year and the beginning of a new one. As the bells strike twelve, a chapter in our life closes and a new one opens. It stands as a pivot between the past and the future.

The New Year gives us an opportunity to look back and reflect. What has happened in the last twelve months? The world around us is constantly changing and this can be a good time to take stock of that. And what about us personally? What were the disappointments and the joys? Where were the successes and the failures of the last year? As the days go by it is so easy to forget what’s happened. It’s helpful to spend a little time remembering.

The New Year doesn’t just give us a prompt to look backwards, it’s also an occasion where we can look forward. The next twelve months are a blank canvas that hasn’t been painted on yet. What will the picture look like at the end? How different do we want it to be from last year, or are we happy to copy and paste? Where will the high points be and what about the low points? What are our hopes? What are our fears?

January 1^st can be a day of anticipation. Yet, over time I’ve learned that the year rarely works out just as we expect it to. Loss, tragedy and heartache seem to lurk around the corner and can strike at any moment. As much as we plan, hope and dream, the future is far from certain.

As a Christian, facing up to this uncertainty, I am thankful for a promise from God that we find in the Bible. It says:

“Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you.” Hebrews 13:5

To me that is such a comfort.

I do not know what the next year will bring. I cannot be certain of the joys I will experience or the difficulties that I will have to endure. I am not able to predict the heights or the depths that the next twelve months will take me to. Yet, I can know that God, who is infinitely capable, will be with me every step of the way, for that is what he has promised to me. In the uncertainty of life, that makes all the difference.

If you want to get in contact to talk about God or what the Bible has to say you can contact us at the church or through our contact page.