"In the hands of the one who makes all things new."

I'm kind of behind on this...but a day late and a dollar short seems to have been my modus operandi for the past six months, so I guess it fits. Here I go...

I'm not usually one to make a ruckus about a new year. Time keeps moving forward and I don't often feel compelled to commemorate its passing. I'm the type who's too busy looking at where my feet are and have been to look far enough in front of me to build up the required anticipatory enthusiasm for celebrating something like the arrival of a new year. It's here before I really have time to prepare, and then, in the shock of the moment, I typically look back and reflect on the one that just passed before I give much thought to the one I just landed in. By the time my head has returned to a forward position, the newness of the year has faded, and, in complete honesty, we humans aren't always prone to make a big deal about things that aren't shiny. So I wave a belated farewell to the shiny new year, and I get down to the business of living in the comfortably worn year which I have found myself.

Thus, from me, a turn-of-the-year post like this would usually major on the highlights that I could pick out from the closing year and minor on thoughts devoted to the blossoming one.

Not this time.

I spent half of 2011 reflecting on 2011. I'm done reflecting on 2011. Now that 2012 is here, I don't want to forget 2011, but I do want to put it away for a while. Like an old man who has seen a lot of life, it was tired. The tired need rest. Death is the ultimate rest, and, as is true for all people at some point, it was time for 2011 to face the final rest of death. Unlike most people, though - whom are usually remembered fondly from the moment they are graced with death - I have yet to think back on 2011 very fondly. I will. In time. I think. It's just not time yet.

That being said, I am convinced that I am more excited about 2012 than I have been for any year I have lived previously. Like 2011, I was tired. Not tired to the point of death, but tired enough to want rest. To want new. 2012 still carries the promise of new. New doesn't always mean good, or better. It just means new.

Behold, the promise of new. 

I like that promise.

And, I'm not gonna lie, I also kind of like the fact that a lot of things are looking pretty worn out, so by virtue of being new, there's a 99% certainty they will be better.

So no looking behind now. Here's to new. To finding a job. To learning new things. To looking at life with anticipation and not dread. To no longer watching my family struggle through physical survival, but rather have lives so full there's a struggle to make it all fit.

And as much as I wish it for myself, I wish it for you, too. God grant you newness this year, in more than just  numbers on a calendar.

Amen.