Happy New Year

So Happy New Year! You made it into 2006, congratulations. By now if you are lucky you will be receiving phone calls , text messages or e-mails wishing you well for the next run of 365 days.

Whenever we enter a new year I am always reminded of the lyrics to the U2 song "New Year's Day":

All is quiet on New Year's Day

A world in white gets underway

I want to be with you

Be with you night and day

Nothing changes on New Year's Day

On New Year's Day

I will be with you again

I will be with you again

Under a blood red sky

A crowd has gathered in black and white

Arms entwined, the chosen few

The newspapers says, says

Say it's true it's true...

And we can break through

Though torn in two

We can be one

I...I will begin again

I...I will begin again

Oh...Maybe the time is right

Oh...maybe tonight...

I will be with you again

I will be with you again

And so we're told this is the golden age

And gold is the reason for the wars we wage

Though I want to be with you

Be with you night and day

Nothing changes

On New Year's Day

For me that song is all about the anticipation of Jesus' second coming. The tentative waiting, the endless hope that maybe tonight... Jesus will come back again. You might think it's all hocus pocus... that's your perogative. You might think we have never had it so good and that we are living in a golden age. I believe Jesus will return one day, more than this I believe he longs to be with you in in your heart now. We live in a world of immense beauty, but it is also a world full of violence, pain and sorrow. Thankfully it won't always be so.The Bible's "New Year" begins with Jesus' return. In it we are promised:

And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, "Now the dwelling of God is with men, and he will live with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away."

He who was seated on the throne said, "I am making everything new!" Then he said, "Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true."

He said to me: "It is done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End. To him who is thirsty I will give to drink without cost from the spring of the water of life. (Revelation 21:3-6)

The great thing is, you don't have to wait till then to experience some of this. God longs to be with you, be with you night and day. The question for you this New Year's Day is... will nothing change?

You have a chance to make your own world in white get underway.

So Happy New Year to you, in every context I can express. May God bless you in 2006. May he wipe away any tears of 2005, or perhaps longer. May joy find a place in your heart from this day forth. May you prosper and find friendship with God and man alike.

Happy New Year... Happy New Year.

N