O’ Timeless One – who to a day is but a thousand years.

We , your children have turned a new calendar year.  We have stood back, looked intently at its grid of numbers and we have sighed deeply.  

Maybe with anticipation and hope.  

Harder still, with dread and the hanging and gnawing feelings of drudgery.

But, here we are—the creature in need of its Creator for another year.

No one has to tell us, we know it in our marrow, what a vapor our calendars hold.  

Time, our time, is enslaved to sin.  Just as we find ourselves naturally, so it too has become twisted and unkind to the sons of man. 

Time is a burden here in the hands of our enemy.  In our aging faces and our tired hearts, our broken and unrealized dreams—

Time has robbed us and left us hallow.

But You, God, in Your Infinite Mercy and Faithful Grace, have turned our demise into opportunities for Glory.  

The clock is no longer a ticking bomb in light of the work of Your Son.  

Jesus, our Brother King, has renewed the clocks gears.  He has refined the hands.  

Now time is redeemed.  We continue to age, life still presses us, suffering is still confined here

—but so is the possibility. 

The Promise. 

The Hope of Salvation.

Even time can be saved.  

No, not in the way we are saved in the completed work of Christ, souls set free from sin and death. But, when Jesus rose with the Sun that Sunday morning, with Him came a New Time.  The day of salvation is now here along with with suffering and the heavy weight of the world.  So all time can be saved.

O’ One Who Holds all our days!

Now when I ponder the calendar page, I see shards of light slicing through each number and square.  

Our Lord and Our God—there You are.  

Beckoning us to revel in Your Goodness.

To return to Your Bleeding Side.

To reclaim the reality that we are a joint heirs with the King! 

In Your Love and Joy, the same joy that was set before Christ at the cross, You are declaring—

“There shall be no wasted days in My Kingdom!”

Let it be so Lord.

O’ Masterful Time Keeper, there cannot be any waste with You!

Everyday of your children shall be useful and full of worth.  

Especially those we cannot feel or see.

Because you are Sovereign over all our days, good and very bad, all are useful.  All are moving The Story of redemption forward.

Fill in our faith, Lord.

Help our unbelief when it seems al though we have made a mess of the time you have bestowed.

Mostly, Father God, We ask as we sit in the shadows of this new scroll of time, help us to remember You know the number of all of our days.  

Wisdom is there, in that truth.  

Assure our hearts in this—

You can be trusted with all this coming year.

Even when—

Our hearts burst and break.

We shout with triumph and joy.

We look to You with confusion and questions.

We are worn thin from little rest.

We are overwhelmed and overlooked.

We are anxious and the loudness of this causes Your Voice to seem distant.

We are sure of your closeness.

We feel abandoned.

We see victories and walls fall around us.

We see chains of oppression break free.

We are comforted by Your Love.

Yes, You can be trusted with all this coming year.

Unto You—The Beginning and the End.

To You—Uncreated One.  

Our Lord and King, Eternal, above all time.

To Jesus—The sweetest friend and companion of all our shared years.

Be honor and worship this New Years Day and on.

Amen.