Happy New Year!

Lifting last year’s calendar from its hook on the kitchen wall (old school I know) I glance through its pages - I notice scribbles and scrawls, appointments and anniversaries. A visit, an appointment, a holiday, a party.

I wonder what your feelings are? Maybe a sense of relief? Or excitement for a new chapter?

There is plenty that I’m happy to turn the page on: some (thankfully successful) medical treatment, losing a loved one, disruptive building work at home. I’m glad that’s all over!

Before it is settled on its hook, I add some events to the new calendar - birthdays, anniversaries, a holiday, a course. There’s much to look forward to, and also many blank pages – promising paths yet to be travelled, like fresh snow before any boot (or a paw) has dented it.

But maybe there’s a niggle too.

An old grudge still weighing us down? An unresolved upset? Something stopping a relationship being the best? A regret haunting us? A grief to move forward with?

What if this trouble could stay in 2025, and not step with us into the new year? What if we could lay it to rest with the old calendar?

If the God of love knows all our days, and every corner of our hearts, I get the feeling God would want to help us make the journey (even a tough one) and give us the strength to make some big steps (or little ones) in the right direction.

At Christmas 1939, war in Europe created uncertainty for everyone. King George VI voiced encouragement and hope through Minnie Louise Haskins’ words:

And I said to the man who stood at the gate of the year:

‘Give me a light that I may tread safely into the unknown.’

And he replied:

‘Go out into the darkness and put your hand into the Hand of God. That shall be to you better than light and safer than a known way.’

So I went forth, and finding the Hand of God, trod gladly into the night. And He led me towards the hills and the breaking of day in the lone East.

Whatever might fill the pages of our new calendars (paper or electronic), may we experience the hope that comes from knowing that the God of limitless love is right there, to walk with us, help us and encourage us through everything that is to come.