A Meditation for New Year’s Eve

Jerusalem takes up a very special place in my heart, most of you know that by now.  So it is not so far fetched that I have a running, non digital clock icon, with second hand, on my computer desktop that shows Jerusalem time.  Normally it is set for seven hours ahead of us and so when I look at it I can place what my friends might be doing at that moment, or what the sunset might be beginning to look like, or even where I might have been off to at that moment in time.  It’s just a trip down

Memory Lane

and a dream to return again to that holiest of cities.

Last week though I started up my computer and the time was way off.  Instead of it being seven hours ahead, it was eight and a half hours ahead.  Disconcerting to say the least.  So I checked into it a little more and I found out that instead of the clock being set for GMT (Greenwich Mean Time) + 2-Jerusalem time, it was set for GMT + 3.30-Tehran time.  How it got changed, I have no clue.  The Trinity is not the only mystery in the world. There are many others.  So I set the clock back to Jerusalem time.  Oh if it was that easy to really set time back or forward other than daylight savings time or a mishap.  Time!

New Year’s Eve is about time too - what was, was is and what will be.  That’s what happens when we cross the threshold of midnight into a new year.  The all of our lives converge in this sacred moment.  2011 is what was, I hope that for your there was growth; life is never stagnant even though we might feel stuck sometimes.   We are who we are today because of what happened to us yesterday.  That might be good and that might not be so good.  The good news is that New Year’s Eve is also about the future, the what will be. 

Dare to dream a different reality for yourself.  Turn the page and begin to read a new chapter filled with promise and hope.  Create and build upon the joys of your life.  Remember the God who loves you deeply and dearly makes a dwelling place within you.

A reading from the Book of Revelation.

 

Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. And I saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying,
                                    ‘See, the home of God is among mortals.
                                      He will dwell with them; they will be his peoples,
                                      and God himself will be with them;

                                      he will wipe every tear from their eyes.
                                      Death will be no more;

                                      mourning and crying and pain will be no more,
                                      for the first things have passed away.’

And the one who was seated on the throne said, ‘See, I am making all things new.’ Also he said, ‘Write this, for these words are trustworthy and true.’ Then he said to me, ‘It is done! I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end.    Amen.