It's a new day, a new month, a new year.  It's a time of resolution, aspiration, goal, vision, and intention, a time that our hearts, even if only for a moment, spur us to new heights of achievement, new pictures of who we think we ought to be.
     As they should.  We are creatures made to long to become something better than what we are at the moment, what we are today.  It is part of being human.  We all want improvement, we all want renewal.  Indeed, pity the person who supposes that she needs neither.
     Yet does not the writer of Ecclesiastes point out that, "There is nothing new under the sun"?  Absolutely.  But he also urges us to "do whatever our hand finds to do."  These are wise words.  Yes, life is a merry go round of routine and repetition (after all, 2015 is but one more year), but life is also a voyage of wonder.  It is a journey through the inexhaustibility of God.  We and our planet may be changing, aging, even, unfortunately, deteriorating, but God remains new, unspeakably new for us and our world.  Always.  His infinite presence guarantees it.
     Rejoice.   Rejoice that as the New Year dawns, it is in God that we will experience the fullness of life, that it is in God that we will see the ultimate picture of existence.  It is in God that we will see the highest vision of what we can be, and who we, morally, epistemologically, and culturally most are.  It's all part of the magnificent promise God embodied, in his son Jesus, for us and our world.
     By the way, I add that for the next week or so, I'll be hiking and traveling and probably will not be posting regular entries.  I look forward to renewing our conversations at that time.  Thanks for reading!
     Happy New Year.