For the first eighteen years of my life, I lived in the same house. To a large extent, that, a healthy family life and attending the same church led to a pretty stable life while I was growing up. But in my eighteenth year, I went away to school and my parents moved, and all that stability I once enjoyed was lost.
And, boy, did I miss it. I often went back to visit old friends and go to my old church and even drive by the old house. For at least a couple of years, I even thought someday I might come back, buy the old house and settle there.
But as many of us have experienced in our lives, what might have been home once would never really be the same again. Life goes on and we adapt to new circumstances and a new environment.
What we are mindful of in the new year of 2011 is true for each and every day of our life as Christians. We begin each morning, recognizing that in our baptism, we are redeemed children of God and are gifted with the new day. The good memories of the past are treasured. The sins of our past God has forgiven and forgotten. And our life moves forward into the great unknown.
But always, always, always, there is stability. That is because God is always with us. And His promises to us will always remain true. Our salvation is assured as we believe in Jesus. The Holy Spirit will always be with us to strengthen and guide us.
With that in mind, we begin each new day of this new year not with regret or apprehension, but rather in joyful anticipation of where God will lead us. No doubt the future will also be full of challenges and struggles, but with our Lord with us, as the Bible says, "who can be against us", and" we are more than conquerors." Knowing that, we can go forward into 2011 with God's strength and His blessing, with Him as our firm, stable Foundation.
