It's New Year's Eve

 

God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. Therefore we will not fear though the earth gives way, though the mountains be moved into the heart of the sea, though its waters roar and foam, though the mountains tremble at its swelling. (Psalm 46:1-3 ESV).

 

We’re almost there. Today is New Year’s Eve. 2020 will be in our past after midnight tonight and the annual dropping of the ball will signal the start of a new year. While very few of us can say we have escaped the challenges of 2020, some have found this year to be breathtakingly painful. I found a meme with the familiar face of Macaulay Culkin, who plays the role of an eight-year-old troublemaker left behind when his family takes a trip to Paris for the holidays. He must protect his house from a pair of hapless burglars played by Joe Pesci and Daniel Stern. It is a regular rerun in our home every year.

 

The theme of this meme is altogether too common today. What will keep it from being just more of the same, or worse? What if the Mayan calendar was written by a dyslexic scribe and 2012 really should have been 2021? Well, serious or not, these things should remind us of the unfaltering care and protection of our God. We do need much more than a casual greeting as we stand at the beginning of this New Year. We need to know that also in this coming year someone greater than any ruler of any nation is in control, not only of our lives but also of the course of history. Our reading today comes from Psalm 46; and, it reminds us that in the midst of the many uncertainties in life the God of heaven and earth is in complete control.

 

The psalmist does not make false promises. He does not guarantee that things will go our way. He does not tell us that this year will bring peace and prosperity. He does not promise the end of persecution and poverty. He makes clear that “nations are in uproar” and there will be desolation and destruction. Nations will fall, and rulers will come and go. But, come what may, God will be in charge. He will be “our refuge and strength.”

How do we know? One week ago we celebrated the birth of our Lord Jesus, the day on which the Son of God “moved into the neighborhood” (cf. John 1:14, The Message). His coming is our guarantee that God will always be our “ever-present help in trouble.”

 

With that truth firmly planted in your mind and heart, go ahead and hope… go ahead and dream… go ahead and celebrate! Jesus didn’t die to leave us behind. He died to make sure we reach our eternal home. He will not fail us!