Seamless

Transitioning year to year is fairly seamless. Were it not for the traditional celebrations ringing in the midnight hour, one day would end with a new one beginning while we slept. Nothing noteworthy differentiates December thirty-first from January first in the passing of time. The weather is identical. The days remain short. Some folks have a holiday from work but not everyone. For some, it’s just like any other day. We make it special by how we choose to spend the hours we’ve been given. This is true of every day, but acknowledging that we are part of a much bigger story authored by God means receiving each day as a gift and living it to the fullest.

World history is marked and memorialized by an event which cannot be ignored, is celebrated in every nation on earth, if not publicly then in secret by believers, and which dramatically altered our reality for all time. This year is officially numbered AD 2022. AD for “anno Domini nostri Jesu Christi”, Latin which translates to “in the year of our Lord Jesus Christ.” Even the use of CE, or Common Era by those seeking political correctness does not change the event that delineated history, the advent of Christ, God in human flesh.

We wish each other a happy and prosperous new year, hoping for something, anything new, particularly in the wake of the pandemic that caused the previous two years to flow into one, yet as Solomon reasoned in Ecclesiastes, “History merely repeats itself. It has all been done before. Nothing under the sun is truly new. Sometimes people say, “Here is something new!” But actually it is old; nothing is ever truly new. We don’t remember what happened in the past, and in future generations, no one will remember what we are doing now.”

Ecclesiastes 1:9-11 NLT

https://bible.com/bible/116/ecc.1.9-11.NLT

The Bible gives us another perspective from eternity’s viewpoint. The story of creation in Genesis is the advent of man into the world God made by His Word. Our beginning was spoken by eternal God who exists outside of time and space. He is not bound in any way as we are in our temporal bodies. Our Creator chose to make us like Him, in His image. We are eternal beings bound for eternity, placed on the earth in a particular place and time so that we may know Him. (Acts 17:27)

“Yet God has made everything beautiful for its own time. He has planted eternity in the human heart, but even so, people cannot see the whole scope of God’s work from beginning to end.”

Ecclesiastes 3:11 NLT

https://bible.com/bible/116/ecc.3.11.NLT

“Even before he made the world, God loved us and chose us in Christ to be holy and without fault in his eyes.

God decided in advance to adopt us into his own family by bringing us to himself through Jesus Christ.

This is what he wanted to do, and it gave him great pleasure.

So we praise God for the glorious grace he has poured out on us who belong to his dear Son.

God has now revealed to us his mysterious will regarding Christ—which is to fulfill his own good plan.

And this is the plan: At the right time he will bring everything together under the authority of Christ—everything in heaven and on earth.”

Ephesians 1:4-6, 9-10 NLT

https://bible.com/bible/116/eph.1.4-10.NLT

Jesus taught His first followers to look forward to their eternal home. This same thing Abraham and many others were commended for in Hebrews. (11:10, 14-16)

“Don’t let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God, and trust also in me.

There is more than enough room in my Father’s home. If this were not so, would I have told you that I am going to prepare a place for you?

When everything is ready, I will come and get you, so that you will always be with me where I am.

And you know the way to where I am going.”

Jesus told him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one can come to the Father except through me.”

John 14:1-4, 6 NLT

https://bible.com/bible/116/jhn.14.1-6.NLT

Revelation 13:8 refers to a book of names belonging to the “lamb slain from the creation of the world.” The eternal One loved the world that He made so much that He stepped out of the heavens and bound Himself to earth for a time. We are living more than two thousand years beyond “the year of our Lord Jesus Christ,” yet His kingdom is closer than ever.

“Above all, you must understand that in the last days scoffers will come, scoffing and following their own evil desires. They will say, “Where is this ‘coming’ he promised? Ever since our ancestors died, everything goes on as it has since the beginning of creation.”

But do not forget this one thing, dear friends: With the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day.

The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. Instead he is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.”

2 Peter 3:3-4, 8-9 NIV

https://bible.com/bible/111/2pe.3.3-9.NIV

Just as Jesus’s garment taken from Him before He was crucified to be gambled away by Roman soldiers was seamless, so will be our crossing into eternity. You and I are created to live forever in the presence of the Almighty and we have a choice in our eternal destination. Jesus is the Way.

“But in keeping with His promise we are looking forward to a new heaven and a new earth, where righteousness dwells.

So then, dear friends, since you are looking forward to this, make every effort to be found spotless, blameless and at peace with him.

Bear in mind that our Lord’s patience means salvation…”

2 Peter 3:13-15 NIV

https://bible.com/bible/111/2pe.3.13-15.NIV

Thank You, Jesus, Lord and Savior, for coming to dwell among us so that we might dwell with You for eternity. This was God’s plan all along. He is not rewriting alternate endings because of free will. God knows every choice and He prompts us again and again in His Word to choose life. In our words and by our actions in this new year, help us in Your power to choose well. Help us to choose You, Jesus. Amen.