​Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
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By the time you read this, another year will have passed. One year, 12 months, 365 days--it seems like such a long time. Perhaps by some measures it is. But not to the Creator of time. For Him, as the psalmist says, "A thousand years in your sight are but as yesterday when it is past." (Psalm 90:4)
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That's very comforting. We need a God big enough for eternity. To a young child, Dad is big enough to protect him from all danger, and Mom is caring enough to provide for every need. But then we become the Dad and Mom, and we know
there are dangers too big for us, cares that we can't provide for. At such times, we need to be children again--children of our heavenly Father--and know that we have a refuge in Him, that He is "our dwelling place" (Psalm 90:1), and that there is no danger too big, and no care beyond His providing.
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God knows what this coming year holds for us--the joys and the sorrows, the challenges and the successes. We like to think we're in control. We make plans and resolutions and try to achieve our own versions of happiness. Perhaps you'd like to know what will come this next year, get a glimpse into the future so you can prepare for it. But that's not for us to know. It's for us to trust our heavenly Father as He leads us from age to age, from one year to the next--to rely on His Word and not despise it; to grow in His Word and treasure it; to rest secure not in our own wisdom, but in His; not that we're in control, but that He is.
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But big can also be frightening. While it is comforting to have a God big enough for eternity, we also need a God small enough for us to know, and who knows us. That's our God, too--the one who became small, the smallest of human beings in the womb of His mother; the one who grew as we do, and then died as we do. In every stage of life from beginning to end, Jesus knows. Whatever happened this past year, and whatever will happen next year, you have a Savior who can and will provide exactly what you need. If God "did not spare His own Son but gave Him up for us all, how will He not with Him graciously give us all things?" (Romans 8:32)
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As we end one year and remember all that our Lord has done for us, we begin a New Year with the confidence that what He has done, He will continue to do. We have a God who is both little and big. Little enough to spend time with widows and lepers, but big enough to cleanse them and help them. Little enough to eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners, but big enough to feed over five thousand with five small loaves of bread and two fish. Small enough to pray, but big enough to hear our prayers. That's the God we need, and that's the God we have.
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​God's richest blessings on your new year!
Pastor M. <t><
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