I remember so well when we turned the calendar from 1999 to 2000.  Beginning a new century was a big deal!  Now I am stunned to realize that one quarter of that century has passed us by.  Can it be?

In that “quarter” I was thrilled to enjoy five grandchildren.  Those little cuties are now adults.  Joe and I made the big move to Florida and energetically toured our new state with fascination.  Twenty-five years have brought many changes and challenges

Our Lord Jesus also watched the years progress in his earthly life. We know little of his childhood, but we can picture him growing up with Mary to guide him.  We know he began to help Joseph in the carpenter shop.   And then, about 25 years later, after his childhood, he was hung on that cross, crucified.  

For all of us, the years pass, and changes come.  Personally, we age.  Many of those we dearly loved are no longer with us.  Yet new life continues to arrive.

There is a hymn appropriate for the new year “O Christ the Same.”  Text by Timothy Dudley-Smith, b. 1926.  The first stanza is as follows:

O Christ the same, through all our story’s pages,
our loves and hopes, our failures and our fears;
eternal Lord, the king of all the ages,
unchanging still amid the passing years:
who spread the skies, and set the stars ablaze,
O Christ the same, who wrought our whole salvation,
we bring our thanks for all our yesterdays.

Lord, we thank you for your unconditional love in the years which have passed, for all our yesterdays.  And we thank you for your assurance that you will be with us in each of the days and years to come.

Judy