New Year is a good time to say thank you. And don’t be too hard on the year we’ve just had. It has been difficult, unpredictable, at times infuriating, a bit scary, and a change of calendar to a new year doesn’t really solve anything. Except.
Years ago a lovely older friend remembered the family gatherings at New Year, and it was a big family. Her father used to look round the table and before giving thanks for the food would say. “Aye, isn’t it a mercy we’re all spared to be here?”
So here we are on the first day of 2023, and perhaps for all our complaints during and about the past year, our first words should be a thank you that we are still here, and ready to go again on the next part of our journey. Thankful too for all our friends out there who enrich our lives, touch us with grace, make us laugh, and help us live and love and interpret and understand something of ourselves, our world, and what matters most.
My current screen saver is this photo I took up on Brimmond Hill, with the sun rising over the horizon just ahead of me on the path. In 2023 there will be new paths to climb and follow, which is where hope points us. Every day, we walk towards the future that comes to us from the God who is always ahead of us. And as we walk towards whatever comes next, we’ll do so with our friends around us, and in the good company of God. And maybe find time to say, “Isn’t it a mercy we’re all spared to be here.”
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