Reflections On A Year Of Sorrow

If there has ever been a year that I am looking forward to its end, it would surely have to be this one. While there have been many triumphs and things to feel very good about, the amount of death and sickness, strife, and tragedies that I have seen in my own family, community, and nation, makes me pray that the coming year will be a better one. Therefore, for me personally, the final ticks of the clock and the opportunity to put this year in my rear-view mirror will be one I look forward to its end.

Unfortunately, we have no idea what the coming year holds for any of us, or if we will ever see the beginning of another year. Therefore, it really is counterproductive to look backwards with any kind of animosity towards events that have unfolded themselves in our earthly lives. As much as our hearts may ache and our eyes fill with tears of sorrow, the reality is, the older that we become the more years like the past one we will all ultimately experience. For each of us that draw the breath loaned to us by our Creator, are but that very breath away from our own eternity.

With each tick of the clock and every gray hair that slowly fills my head I find myself contemplating the importance of our lives upon this perfectly created combination of soil, water, and air that we call earth. Such reflection causes me to not only wonder, but also ultimately come to the realization that we are definitely a special creation, made in the image of a just and powerful God. Such a God that can speak the entire universe into existence, but still converses with man one on one, and in His own Words still sees the sparrow fall.

Now, as we prepare to tear the final page off this year’s calendar and the threshold to another year is plainly in sight, will you join me and celebrate the lives of those we have lost this past year? There is no doubt going forward that our lives will be a little emptier, and our hearts a little lonelier. However, in God’s time, the events that we call years are merely seconds, and one day all, who have accepted the gift of salvation that came to us from the sacrifice of the cross, will see those who we have loved again.

My wish for us all is that this past year, a year of such sorrow, become but another reason to turn our hearts towards our final home and to our Heavenly Father. May the year ahead be a blessed one for all and ultimately may we all come to realize our lack of real importance on this earth, because ultimately we will all return to the dust from which we came. My prayer is that in the coming year we will find what a true relationship with the God of our fathers means. That we may realize that The One who controls our very breath holds our soul in the palm His hand. Happy New Year!