New Year’s Eve
31 December 2013
Our God Our Help in Ages Past
Psalm 90
O GOD, You make us glad with the yearly remembrance of
the birth of Your only Son Jesus Christ.
Grant, that as we joyfully receive Him as our Redeemer, so we may with
sure confidence behold Him when He shall come to be our Judge on the Last Great
Day; who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and
forever. Amen.
We've come to the end of yet another year. 365 days have
passed. What will be said of this the year, the year of our Lord - 2013 - when the history books are written
and this chapter of our lives is read?
It's been a significant year for this our Friedheim
family. 175 years of mission and ministry! What a year it has been!
Like other years, there were births. Infants were born
into this world. They too were claimed to be "children of light" as
they were born again, through the Sacrament of Holy Baptism. Still others were
born into Glory. As they took a walk. From one end of the Father's kingdom to
the other. From the kingdom of Grace.
Into the Kingdom of Glory.
So, how do we measure one year that is past? With all of
its experiences, it's memories? What
impression will this past year place upon your life?
And what do you say about the New Year, which is about to
begin? How do we plot our future as we recall our past? Our hymn verse helps
put all things into perspective.
Our God our Help in ages past. If
you are ever admitted into a hospital, the first thing you need to do is remove
your watch. You won’t need it. Hospital time is NOT regular time! The two are
different! There is no time in a hospital. Time…is just a suggestion! There were moments this past year when time
seemed to stop. Now they are in the past.
Yet, forever they remain with us.
There are moments in our lives that are frozen in
time. We make it a habit of marking time. Glance at your calendar. It reminds
you when you first planted corn and cut your first field of beans. It marks the
first snowfall and the first 90-degree day. It recalls you of your child’s
first tooth, and their first steps. It remembers your first kiss. The day you
got out of debt. They day you landed that big account. The day your child
walked across the graduation stage. The day you entered retirement. Each of us
can remember those significant moments of this past year. They are forever in
our memory.
God was in the midst of each of these
days. Moses reminds us in Psalm 90,
“Lord, thou hast been our dwelling place in all generations. Before the
mountains were brought forth, or eve thou hast formed the earth and the world,
even from everlasting to everlasting, thou art God. –Psalm 90:1-2
Moses
will later write, “May the favor of the
Lord our God rest on us; establish the work of our hands for us, yes establish
the work of our hands.” – Psalm 90:17 It is important to remember that any
of our accomplishments in our lifetime are really not much unless their
directions come from our Heavenly Father. The importance of “His” work is
greater than what this world holds as important.
Jesus
remains, Our Hope for years to come. How do we face the next 365 days?
What will befall us in the New Year? We simply do not know. But one thing we do
know, “From everlasting to everlasting,
You are God.” –Psalm 90: 2
We
pray that our Lord would direct us. “Heavenly
Father, You have called us to ventures of which we cannot see the ending, by
paths as yet untrodden, through perils unknown... give us faith to go out with
good courage, not knowing where we go but only that Your hand is leading us and
Your love supporting us.[1]
Because
our Lord is with us. Because He has promised to lead us. Because He is our Good
and faithful Shepherd we know our Lord remains, Our Shelter from the stormy blast.
Calamities. Tragedies. Disasters. They make the headlines. There were plenty
this past year. From a pipe bomb at the Boston Marathon to an F-4 tornado that
left New Minden, IL in shambles. 2013
saw the fewest weather disasters in recent history. Yet, the Red Cross
responded to 932 events this past year.
From
the Arab Spring to the North Korea missile threats. They remind us we are
living outside of Eden. Yet we do not loose heart. St. Paul would remind us, “We are hard pressed on every side, but not
crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down,
but not destroyed. We always carry
around in our body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be
revealed in our body. For we who are
alive are always being given over to death for Jesus' sake, so that his life
may be revealed in our mortal body.” - 2 Corinthians 4:8-11
We
do not loose heart because we really don’t belong here. 0ur eternal Home! Is with
the Lord. In this coming year there will be baptisms and there will be
funerals. Infants will be welcomed into the family called the Church. Dear
saints will hear the words, “Well done,
good and faithful servant!” We pray in the Te Deum “May we numbered with Thy saints, in glory everlasting.” The old
song sings, “Soon and very soon, we are
going to see the King.” And yes! It will be. We will see the King! It could happen this
year. The Lord might appear. The Lord might receive us. In His own perfect timing,
all will be made right at the end of days.
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