‘Stand at the crossroads and look; ask for the ancient paths, ask where the good way is, and walk in it, and you will find rest for your souls.
Jer 6:16
Dear Church,
Welcome to 2021.
Many of us will be hoping that this year is a significant improvement on 2020 and will be looking ahead to times when we can meet again as families, church, colleagues, lovers of music or theatre or even as sports fans. It’s good to look ahead and hope for a future of opportunity and peace.
The Bible teaches us that it’s good to look ahead with hope but that we should also remember the good things of the past and celebrate them.
The above reading is a good example where the people of God are called to look back and celebrate the good things of God. As church we often find ourselves remembering the past. Christmas is a celebration of a past event, communion too, albeit with significant implications for the present and the future.
I want to encourage us today not to put our hope in the past or in a bright, sparkly future but in the God who holds time in his hands.
Remember that whatever the year ahead holds for us, God is above all and victorious over all. As Colossians 1 says:
For he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.
God Bless you and have a great New Year.
Geoff Felton.