“Wait on the Lord, wait quietly, wait trustingly. He holds every minute of every hour of every day of every week of every month of every year in His hands. Thank Him in advance for what the future holds, for He is already there” (Elisabeth Elliot).

I sometimes forget that God is not like me. He is not bound by time nor controlled by it. He exists completely outside of any notion of time. That means that He is still in the past where I messed up. He is in my present with all of its worries and concerns. And He is already in the future, going before me in whatever lies ahead of me.

He will still be there when I get there. That to me means more than any good news or unexpected blessing. The fact that I don’t have to wake up tomorrow wondering how I’m going to figure out all the ins and outs of my life is hugely relieving. God is there. He knows.

A word I have chosen for 2026 is waiting. Not in the sense of waiting passively like waiting by the phone for a call. But waiting actively. Waiting expectantly. Waiting while I prepare the fields to receive rain in advance of a mighty harvest.

God, we wait for You knowing that our future is secure in nail-scarred hands. Thank You that we never go where You have not already been. Amen.

“Ring out, wild bells, to the wild sky,
The flying cloud, the frosty light:
The year is dying in the night;
Ring out, wild bells, and let him die.
Ring out the old, ring in the new,
Ring, happy bells, across the snow:
The year is going, let him go;
Ring out the false, ring in the true.
Ring out the grief that saps the mind
For those that here we see no more;
Ring out the feud of rich and poor,
Ring in redress to all mankind.
Ring out a slowly dying cause,
And ancient forms of party strife;
Ring in the nobler modes of life,
With sweeter manners, purer laws.
Ring out the want, the care, the sin,
The faithless coldness of the times;
Ring out, ring out my mournful rhymes
But ring the fuller minstrel in.
Ring out false pride in place and blood,
The civic slander and the spite;
Ring in the love of truth and right,
Ring in the common love of good.
Ring out old shapes of foul disease;
Ring out the narrowing lust of gold;
Ring out the thousand wars of old,
Ring in the thousand years of peace.
Ring in the valiant man and free,
The larger heart, the kindlier hand;
Ring out the darkness of the land,
Ring in the Christ that is to be” (Lord Alfred Tennyson).

Happy New Year! May 2026 be your best year yet!

The older I get, the less Christmas is about stuff. I remember when all I could think about on Christmas Eve was opening all those presents. It was even more important to me than food (and that’s really saying something).

But it seems lately, I really cherish the people more than the presents. Really, of all the gifts I ever received, I probably still have 1%. What I have more than anything I unwrapped are memories. I have pictures in my mind of all the people that I’d see every Christmas. A lot of those aren’t here anymore, but their memories still are.

Of course, the greatest gift I still have is my salvation. That is one present that grows sweeter as I grow older. Most gifts didn’t hold my interest for very long. It saddens me to think that a lot of them ended up in a closet or in a yard sale or donated to Goodwill after people went through all that trouble to pick them out for me. But that’s how this earthly life is in a lot of ways.

This year, I’m thankful for all my family and friends. I’m thankful for my church family and what we’re doing in our new building. I’m thankful for a roof over my head and clothes on my back and good meals set before me. I am very blessed, even if I didn’t get one single solitary present for Christmas (and believe me, I did).

Christmas is more than packages and decorations and tinsel and parties. Christmas is the people around you and the love between you. Christmas is how God saw lost sheep away from the fold and became the Good Shepherd to find us and lead us back home. Christmas is Jesus.

“Almighty God,
you have poured upon us the new light of your incarnate Word:
Grant that this light, enkindled in our hearts, may shine forth in our lives;
through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God,
now and for ever. Amen.”

This year, I want to linger on Christmas. I don’t mean I want to keep the decorations up all year (though the thought is a little tempting), but I want to keep the meaning and spirit of Christmas alive in my heart well beyond December into the new year.

It’s so easy to pack everything away and move on. But we forget how monumental that first Christmas night was. Everything, and I mean absolutely everything, changed. God became human in the form of a tiny infant. That infant grew up to be the Savior of the world.

Because of Jesus, there’s no longer a veil between us and God. We are told we can enter boldly into the throne room of God because of Jesus being the Perfect High Priest who was also the Perfect Sacrifice and who lives forever to make intercession for us.

We no longer need to go through a priest or a minister but we can go directly to God. We now have the Holy Spirit who prays for us within us when we have no words. We have a certain hope now of a glorious future and God’s presence with us here and now.

Christmas will always mean that God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son so that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life. Thank You, Jesus.

I found this beautiful letter that even though it’s not your typical tidings of comfort and joy on Christmas, it does speak to the sorrow and suffering that many experience during this time of the year. I love how the imagery that trials and pain are often the coverings of the gifts we receive, and it’s only when we look past the wrapping that we find the real gift underneath.