It’s a whole happy new year, but more than one person cried tonight as the ball dropped. 365 days can change a lot in someone’s life. So many parties, so many drinks, and so many smiles, but how many people stayed home, for the first time all by themselves, and cried themselves to sleep? Who smiled back on the last twelve months and who looked for a distraction?
It’s a whole new year, and everyone’s supposed to be happy. No, not really. Because as happy as the new year is supposed to be, or at least as happy as everyone is on TV, the new calendar forces us to remember where we’ve been and what we’ve done. We’re not reliving some tropical vacation; this is the roll of our lives, in action and in color. It’s not surprising, then, that for more than a few, it’s a really depressing night. And the alcohol sure doesn’t help.
But the point of the new year isn’t to look back on the past, even though it’s the most normal thing to do. Somehow, we’re supposed to move on, make resolutions, and plan for happier tomorrows. But no one really does that. We savor the sweet past or continue our long lament. Just wait a week, and no one will care anymore about the change in digits from 7 to 8. But some guy will still remember losing the love of his life, or his job and, with it, his family. And some girl will still remember the night her dad left her for heaven, or the night her hero pathetically walked out the door. You don’t see these scenes in movies, but they’re here in the real world. They’re our yesterdays, our tomorrows and, sadly, even our todays.
You just can’t live for happiness. You do, and you lose, because at some point, the brutality of the curse catches up and takes you down. In fact, it doesn’t make sense to live for anything you have or anything you really want to have, because the day you die is the day you lose it. Depressing, right? But that’s the way life works, and it doesn’t help to convince yourself otherwise.
But, really, if you can’t take anything with you, then what’s worth living for? Why go to law school or med school or Wall Street and make all the money you’ve ever dreamed of if you’re just going to have to give it up when you die? And who’s keeping score? When it’s all over, what are you expecting?
Live for something more, something you’ll never lose, an inheritance that won’t ever be given away. And live for someone else, someone who makes each day matter, someone who has the ability to take you from who are and make you worth something more, a pearl of the greatest price. Live for the one who has the power and the desire to give you every good thing.
God’s like that. He’s restoration, redemption, salvation. He’s hope. All in one, all in all, the man Jesus who loved you so much he gave his life for you. And his gift doesn’t cost a thing. He wants you to have it.
It’s a whole new year, every day all over again, and I promise you that there’s no more comforting way to spend these days here on earth than in the arms of a God who loves you, created you individually, so wonderfully complex, so marvelously intricate; a God who watched you as you were formed in utter seclusion, who saw you and knew you and loved you before you were even born. And the best part? Hope, because God promises his children not just a few happy days each year, but every good thing, for time and eternity.
far from, but right at, home 