Whenever I start a new year, I cannot help calling to mind the words of Scottish writer and philosopher, Thomas Carlyle, which I most likely shared with you before. Carlyle was attending a party on New Year’s Eve in his native Scotland. There was much laughter, music and food, and everyone seemed to be enjoying themselves, with the exception of Carlyle. He became bored with what he considered the shallowness of the event and slipped away into the night, making his way down to the sea-shore. It was a stormy night, and the waves crashed against the large boulders along the shore while the air pulsated with the sound of thunder. This natural drama found a responsive chord in the heart of Carlyle, and as the hand of the New Year touched the disappearing heel of the old, he cried out in exhilaration, “Now I stand at the centre of immensities, at the conflux of eternities.”
There is no doubt that we are standing at the center of immensities as we start a new year. We need to look no further than the COVID-19 pandemic which has exacted a heavy toll on our country and the world at large, and appears to be growing in intensity and impact. When this is coupled with the high level of unemployment, the demise of tens of thousands of small businesses and the political unrest in our country, the size of the immensities in which we stand seems overwhelming. We can add to the list the unprecedented events in Washington D.C. yesterday, which struck at the very heart of American democracy and left people wondering about the stability of our Federal institutions in the future.
The good news for us is that the immensity of God’s grace is bigger than all the big issues that dog our path and cast a shadow over us. And a new year puts into perspective the need for God’s grace and underscores the quality of that grace. Without exception, we all failed to live up to our potential and expectations during 2020. More importantly, we failed to live up to God’s expectations. But whatever the failings and disappointments of the past, a new year presents us with new opportunities and new prospects.
In all situations that challenge our meagre resources God enjoins us not to worry or be afraid: “But now thus says the LORD, he who created you, O Jacob, he who formed you, O Israel: “Fear not, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by name, you are mine.” Isa. 43: 1. While none of us can accurately predict the experiences that we will have during 2021, we can safely predict that the One who knows our names and ‘numbers the hairs on our heads’ will not allow our personal immensities and those that our country faces to overwhelm us during the next twelve months. As Alison Krauss assuredly wrote, I don’t know about tomorrow; I just live from day to day. I don’t borrow from its sunshine, for its skies may turn to grey. I don’t worry o’er the future, for I know what Jesus said. And today I’ll walk beside Him, for He knows what is ahead. Many things about tomorrow I don’t seem to understand. But I know who holds tomorrow and I know who holds my hand.”
So, in the face of a crippling pandemic, unacceptable unemployment levels, the closure of tens of thousands of businesses, domestic terrorism and our many personal challenges, we can proceed through the rest of 2021 with confidence in the immensity of God’s grace and power. And we can still believe that God is in control of not only our individual lives, but also our world. He stands at the center of our immensities with His amazing grace and power.
Don W McFarlane