Meeting Jesus for the First Time

• New Every Morning

       This new year has not begun the way we had hoped. Many of us were shouting, “So long, 2020! Hello, 2021!” as the clock struck midnight on December 31st. We were ready for something new, a fresh start, a chance to forget the pain and frustration of last year and start with a clean slate. Only that didn’t happen. We can’t get past the pain of last year because it has carried over into this year. We have forgotten that our lives do not change simply because we can turn a page in the calendar.

       As we begin this new year, still longing for what once was and looking forward to the good future that will be (someday), let us turn our attention to the words of a rarely read book of the Bible: Lamentations. I know, I know, we prefer the Psalms, or the Gospels, or the letters of Paul, or almost any book besides Lamentations. The title says it all: this is a book of sorrow.

       This book was written after the destruction of Jerusalem in 587 BC. The nation of Babylon had swept through the area and captured the nation of Judah. They had leveled the Temple and carried off its treasures. They had captured the people and dragged them into captivity. They seized the land as a part of their empire and ruled with an iron fist. Lives had been lost, property destroyed, a nation demolished. As the people of Judah sat in the ruins of their nation, as they wept in exile in a pagan land, they lamented. They cried out in anger and pain to the Lord God. And right in the middle of this book of sorrow, there is hope:

  The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases,
  his mercies never come to an end;
  they are new every morning;
  great is your faithfulness.
  “The Lord is my portion,” says my soul,
  “therefore I will hope in him.”
  - Lamentations 3:22-24

       Even in the midst of weeping and sorrow, light breaks through. God is still God. He will never leave his people or forsake us. His mercies are new every morning. He is our reason for hope. We cannot put our hope in anyone or anything else. All others will fail. All others will stumble and fall. All others, even the very best, will let us down. But God is faithful and just. He alone will see us through the pain and frustrations of this world.

       And so, if you find yourself weeping at the beginning of this new year - this year that you thought would be better, this new start that carries with it the painful baggage of the old - remember these words from a people who wept and cried out to the Lord. His mercies are new every morning, his steadfast love never ends.

  

   

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