The spirit of the new year

By Rev Roger Scholtz

Today we bring this week’s reflections on the new year to a close with one final Calvin & Hobbes cartoon. In it, Calvin has made a snowman which depicts the spirit of the new year.

Calvin describes his snowman in glowing terms: ‘Looking ahead, he strides forward with confidence and determination. He challenges! He imagines! He invents! He calls forth the best qualities of human drive and ingenuity.’

But next to this ‘inspiring’ snowman there are others lazing about, fighting or laughing mockingly. In referring to these Calvin says, ‘This is why we’re always glad when the old year is over.’

Which of these snowmen can you more readily identify with now? As you think about that, why don’t you join in this prayer and make it your own?

PRAYER

Almighty God, in the midst of an ever-changing world you are an unchanging God who yesterday, today and tomorrow is ever the same. We take comfort in the fact that you are like a rock in our lives - solid, dependable, utterly secure. Rock of ages, thank you that our lives can be built on you with confidence.

As we acknowledge your dependability as an unchanging God, so we have to affirm that you are also the God of new things. Your unchanging nature in no way hinders your capacity to move, to stir, to refresh, to renew, to invigorate, to enliven. You are not only a rock in our lives, but also a surging stream, cleansing that which is impure, challenging that which is unyielding, refreshing that which is old and tired, carrying us on to new shores of discovery. You are the living water that quenches our souls deepest thirst, for which we thank you.

And so we come to you O God, at this the start of another year. As we consider the future, so much of it is uncertain. There is the fear that what lies in store for us might cause us to falter and fall. We long for our feet to be firmly established on the rock of your strength, that in the uncertainty of the future, your strength might become our strength. Do this for us we pray O God.

As we consider the future, so we also realise that much of it is predictable. For our lives so easily follow familiar paths, and we so quickly become entrenched in monotonous ruts of habit and routine. We long to be swept away by those life-giving waters that will lead us more deeply into that exciting life of faith that you call us to. Do this for us we pray O God.

And may this new year be for us all a season of grace. Amen.