The first of January always feels so good – like a blank page has been opened in a whole new book, just waiting to be splashed with life-colour.
God was wise to divide our time into days and years.
Every new year feels alive with possibilities and expectations and I can take it on a day at a time. More than that and my head might explode.
On that note, one of my favourite characters in literature is children’s author Matt Haig’s Truth Pixie. This naughty pixie can only tell the truth, usually without any tact, which gets her in plenty of trouble.
She also has a penchant for exploding heads, which coincidentally gets her into even more trouble.
But back to the new year.
Matthew 6:34 says: “Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.”
This is good advice for living. With all the uncertainties the year ahead holds, what with Covid and all the rest, trying to manage it all in our little brains would be too much to cope with.
I treat New Year’s resolutions with disdain. They never last. But I cannot seem to help myself from making them anyway.
I want to eat healthy, exercise more, watch less TV, lose weight, plan my week’s meals ahead of time and train my naughty puppy into a champion… the list goes on.
I wonder what will stick past Jan 7?
One of my favourite rituals come New Year is to spend some time reflecting on the year past, before plunging into the year to come. It is an incredibly rewarding exercise to write down all the milestones and wins of the year.
Despite the extreme difficulties of 2021, my gratitude list was long. I’ll mention just 2 of them here.
My family experienced a miracle in our 4-year-old son Ruben. He has only just learned to swim because he broke both his wrist and his leg last year.
The wrist was more serious and he should have had surgery. But testing Covid positive (he was asymptomatic) he could not be put under anesthesia.
Instead the surgeon attempted to move the growth plate manually in the ER, but without success.
This was a huge prayer point for the year. Ruben went for monthly X-rays and was to have surgery at the end of the year. But for God!
By mid-year X-rays revealed that the growth plate had quite unexpectedly moved back into place on its own. While bones in children heal quite quickly, a growth plate out of place can cause the hand to become deformed. The orthopaedic surgeon was both delighted and surprised.
My next highlight is a bit odd, but hear me out. The riots were both terrifying and devastating.
We could not bring out a paper that week (the first time in 36 years). But also in a professional sense, it was a privilege to keep the community updated on exactly what was happening and being a source you could trust.
My reporters were on the frontline in what felt like a war zone.
It was humbling to be stopped in the street by people thanking us for keeping them informed in a time when ‘fake news’ was at an all time high and people trapped in their homes had no other means of finding out what was happening on their own doorsteps.
Now, as I brace for January and the new year ahead, I am excited to see what God will do with my failures and my victories. He is after all Jehovah Jireh, my provider.
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Why was 6 afraid of 9 on New Year’s Eve? Because 9, 8, 7…
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