As we step into the New Year and look back over 2024 there are many joys to be thankful for. But there are also sorrows. Our lives in this world are woven with threads of beauty, but are marked by pain and loss. It is to this world that Jesus came on the first Christmas to redeem and restore, as the compelling lyrics of this new Irish ballad by Keith and Kristyn Getty and We Are Messengers remind us: ‘Oh rejoice he comes to rescue / Our redemption in His veins / To a world of thorn and thistle / Jesus came’.
In times of gladness, and in dark days of sadness, with faith in Jesus we can look with confidence to a future which is far better. The closing chapters of the Bible turn our eyes to this wonderful truth.
Today I’m sharing a new poem, ‘Blessèd Hope’. You can hear it by pressing the play button.
With every best wish for the New Year,
Sharon x
Blessèd Hope
Sometimes there are glimpses: madrigals
in autumn red and gold that wing their way
to earth; sunlight through trees on a winter’s day;
silent buds in early spring with petals
that unfold in hues of summer rose,
of apricot and blue. Afternoons in May
when seas are calm and skies illuminate the bay.
These are gladdening glories, shadows
of the new, recalling ancient stories:
a tree beside a river crystal clear;
abundant fruit; the drying of each tear;
all nations, healed; resounding hymns of praise.
Our God Himself will dwell with us in light;
our eyes at last shall see the face of Christ.
