Good Morning Friends,
The British Museum of History was commissioned a few years back to come up with 100 objects in their collection that summarized the history of the world, and you can go online to hear and see their podcasts. One is on death and memory which intrigues me for my younger brother died one year ago yesterday of a heart attack and I was wondering once again what objects summarized his life as I finalize his estate. Perhaps his guitar (he loved music) and then again maybe his Bible (he loved the Lord) or maybe his glasses (for he saw life on his own terms with a prescription from God that was unique to his life and needs). So, related to that today on New Year’s Eve we explore the blessings of our family of faith as heirs to the promise as we look forward to the new year even as we lament the passing of all that could have been in 2021 but was not to be. Of course, we have lots of questions about what has happened and what will happen for those who have joined us in the last year. Thankfully, it is my belief that we all have been adopted by God and have the hope of a new year filled with opportunity. Perhaps it does not get much better than that even for my brother who is now out of all the pain he suffered. Perhaps Paul would have counted my brother’s death as gain. Hard to say he is in a better place. Still, Can You Conceive Of A Better New Year Blessing Than To Be With Jesus?
Scripture: I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you, and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing.
Genesis 12:2 (NRSV)
The Lord spoke to Moses, saying: Speak to Aaron and his sons, saying, Thus you shall bless the Israelites: You shall say to them, The Lord bless you and keep you; the Lord make his face to shine upon you, and be gracious to you; the Lord lift up his countenance upon you, and give you peace. So they shall put my name on the Israelites, and I will bless them.
Numbers 6:22-27 (NRSV)
But when the fullness of time had come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, in order to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as children. And because you are children, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, “Abba! Father!” So you are no longer a slave but a child, and if a child then also an heir, through God.
Galatians 4:4-7 (NRSV)
So they went with haste and found Mary and Joseph, and the child lying in the manger. When they saw this, they made known what had been told them about this child; and all who heard it were amazed at what the shepherds told them. But Mary treasured all these words and pondered them in her heart. The shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen, as it had been told them. After eight days had passed, it was time to circumcise the child; and he was called Jesus, the name given by the angel before he was conceived in the womb.
Luke 2:16-21 (NRSV)
Then he said, “I am God, the God of your father; do not be afraid to go down to Egypt, for I will make of you a great nation there.
Genesis 46:3 (NRSV)
To the leader: with stringed instruments. A Psalm. A Song. May God be gracious to us and bless us and make his face to shine upon us,
Selah
that your way may be known upon earth, your saving power among all nations. Let the peoples praise you, O God; let all the peoples praise you.
Let the nations be glad and sing for joy, for you judge the peoples with equity and guide the nations upon earth.
Selah
Let the peoples praise you, O God; let all the peoples praise you.
The earth has yielded its increase; God, our God, has blessed us. May God continue to bless us; let all the ends of the earth revere him.
Psalm 67:1- 8 (NRSV)
Message: It is the time of year when people take a year-end inventory and judge how they have done. And much of my year has been focused on tying up the loose ends of my brother’s estate. But for my brother, now dead, the inventory is not for a year or a decade but for a lifetime extended. For it is also a time of the year when we commit to being more productive relationally and that includes our relationship with God that lives on beyond our years alive on earth. Some use this time to make peace with the past and others to add something new to their lives. But maybe it would not hurt us to be more like a child of God this coming new year and happy enough to realize that we do not know what tomorrow is going to bring, much less a full year. So, we must have faith that it will work out. But what I do know is that we have been given the greatest of opportunities to live out our life in the faith of Christ with a bold expression of love, for we have been adopted by God. So, tomorrow is the first day of the new year but the celebration of Christmas, the celebration of life is to endure on in our hearts. The Spirit is to live on and for my brother continuing on in the arms of Jesus and for us in the presence of the Spirit. So, treasure life of family and friends in your hearts as Mary treasured Jesus. It is the love that lasts.
And So, my hope for you is that you conceive of a relationship with God that honors the families of God and your earthly families too. Friends, God has a plan, and we all are in it. A family reunion is being prepared by God. And just as God planted the Old Testament Joseph in Egypt to prepare for the survival of his family so too the New Testament Joseph echoes this memory as God has planted Jesus on earth to prepare us all for the greatest reunion of all.
Pray we resolve to live victoriously. Pray we resolve to never to waste a moment of time, but to improve it in the most profitable way we can. Pray we be kind to one another. Pray we never plot revenge. Pray we be unafraid to live as if each hour of the day was our last. Pray we realize that indeed God does make all things brand new. Pray we strive to have a happy, prosperous, and faithful new year.
Blessings,
John Lawson
Daily Devotionals 