Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ!
Happy New Year! Maybe I’m alone in this, but the year 2020 just doesn’t seem real. The phrase “hindsight is always 20/20” comes to mind as the new year rolls around. I think it’s really fitting as this year marks the end of a decade. Year by year, life has changed for so many in the past ten years. There have been giant trials and miniscule moments. At the turn of the year, you and I can sit back and reflect on those changes and see how God has moved in our lives.
Joy and wonderful moments that still bring a smile to your face today.
Pain and tragedy that has made you into a stronger person.
New experiences that have helped you and me to grow to be the people we are today.
As the year closes, is hindsight truly 20/20 for you? I would say that it is easier for you and me to see the way God has moved, but if you’re like me, that may just be about it. Sure, you and I can understand that God led us to the point we are at today but I’m sure there are still times where we can look to our past and think, “What a miserable sinner, why didn’t God just give up on me?”. Maybe it was when you had a family fight and you knew you were wrong, but you knew you were never going to back down, or perhaps the death of a family member where you doubted God. I know that within the past ten years there have been plenty of times where I can remember these big trials of sin that I went through. In those trials, you and I might have wondered how we were going to get through to the next year. Hindsight may be 20/20, but you still might not be able to grasp how you made it through all the giant trials.
There were giant trials for sure, but God sustained you through miniscule moments. Week in and week out, through simple means of bread and wine, the Word of God, and the community of saints, God sustained you. It may have been for only hours at a time which compared to the hours spent at work seem miniscule, but they contained the colossal infinite love of God. The love God has for you and for me every minute of every day sustains us.
This same love is what gets you and me to face the next moment, the next day, the next trial, and even the new year. Forgiveness of sins, salvation, and life everlasting are still yours every minute of the new year, just as they were yours every minute of the last year. You will have these gifts for all of eternity.
My prayer for you this new year is that you would continue to be strengthened and nourished by the Word. You and I can continue to come have our sins forgiven. And I pray that Christ may come again and come soon. May the Grace of our Lord Jesus Christ abide with you always throughout this new year.
- Before the cross subdued we bow,
To You our prayer addressing,
Recounting all Your mercies now,
And all our sins confessing;
Beseeching you this coming year
To keep us in Your faith and fear
And crown us with Your blessing
- Then, gracious God, in years to come,
We pray your hand may guide us,
And onward through our journey home,
Your mercy walk beside us
until at last our ransomed life
is safe from peril, toil and strife
when heav’n itself shall hide us. (LSB 899)
In Christ, Vicar Gonzalez-Feliciano