Today is the first day of a brand new year, a year full of possibilities. Who knows what will come this year? Only the Lord. One thing we can know is that He is good and He is able and He can and will use this year for our good and His glory when we trust and follow Him.
At the breakfast table this morning, Jim read a prayer from the Northumbria Community:
This day is a new day
that has never been before.
This year is a new year,
the opening door.
(Open the door to your home as a symbol of welcoming in Jesus and inviting his blessing)
Enter, Lord Christ -
we have joy in your coming.
You have given us life;
and we welcome your coming.
I turn now to face you,
I lift up my eyes.
Be blessing my face, Lord;
be blessing my eyes.
May all my eye looks on
be blessed and be bright,
my neighbours, my loved ones
be blessed in your sight.
You have given us life
and we welcome your coming.
Be with us, Lord,
we have joy, we have joy.
This year is a new year,
the opening door.
Be with us, Lord,
we have joy, we have joy.
After the reading, each of the children, their overnight guests, and us parents shared about our past year. We shared what we saw as the hardest thing we'd gone through, the best thing we'd experienced, and how we'd grown or changed or seen God work in our lives over 2010.
For many of us, the housefire of February came up. For some, the aftermath of it was listed among the worst of the happenings. For others, it was listed as the best thing that happened as we grew from it and gained blessings such as a newly restored home and provision for the Swaziland trip.
We laughed over some of the answers and pondered deeply some of the things we heard. We looked back and at the same time looked forward.
As said earlier, we have no way of knowing all that God has in store for 2011. We believe He is taking several of us overseas to serve His least and lost. We believe He will continue to prepare our hearts and minds and lives for service in Swaziland. We anticipate our oldest daughter graduating from high school at the end of this new year. And some of us, myself included, hold wild dreams close in our hearts --- the kind of dreams that only God could make a reality.
Whatever it holds, I pray that at the end of the year, we will all be able to say that we love each other, God, and the "least of these" more passionately. I pray that we will have seen God in every day, in every way, and that at the end, we will stand amazed at all that He has done for and through and in us.
Enter the door, Lord Jesus.
Be with us, be with us, be with us.
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