"I said to the man who stood at the gate of the year, 'Give me a light that I might tread safely into the unknown.'"
So begins a poem by Minnie Louise Haskins.
Different cultures have different ways to mark the passing of the years.
We follow the Gregorian Calendar, which marks this January 1 as the first day in AD 2025. (Anno Domini is Latin for 'The Year of Our Lord,' which is why old-timers like me always place it before the year.)
But in China this is 4722; and on the Hebrew calendar it's 5782.
Although neither of those calendars considers January 1 as the first day of their year, they show that we all feel the need to celebrate the passing of time. This celebration offers us a time to reflect, hope and plan.
Fortunately, God is not bound by a calendar. We don't have to wait for a calendar change to cause us to reflect, hope and plan. We get to do that every day.
"The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases; His mercies never come to an end. They are new every morning." -- Lamentations 3:22-23a.
But, since we're in a culture that does mark this passage, we can choose to bring God into our celebration. We get to decide every day to follow our Lord. We get to renew that commitment every year.
We get to respond to the voice of the Gatekeeper:
"And he replied, 'Go forth, and put your hand into the hand of God. And He will be better than a light, and safer than a known way.'"