Late in the Year

2009 is winding down. It has moved almost entirely from the future, through the present, and into the past, the way that you and I and everyone and everything eventually must.

And lately I feel hopeful. I almost missed out on Christmas this year, so bogged down was I with the stressfulness of the traditions we've built up around it. So preoccupied with all the extra work and patience it required of me that I almost neglected to wonder at the God that became a man. But then I heard a friend sing:

"Why am I shrugging my shoulders while Heaven and nature sing?"

And then I got it. God became a man!

God never does anything the way that anyone else would do it. Ever. A baby that was God was born to an unmarried teenager and laid in a trough for animals. And thirty-three years later, He saved the world by being murdered.

He said that the last would be first, and the first would be last.
He said that people we don't think much of -- the meek, the poor in spirit, the peacemakers, the persecuted -- He said they were blessed. They will inherit the earth; the kingdom of God belongs to them; they will be called the sons of God.
He said evil doesn't just consist in what we do; but in the thoughts and motives that drive what we do.

He never does what anyone else would do or says what anyone else would say. He's wild and scandalous, and entirely unpredictable.

I've been thinking about that for a while now. God's creativity is amazing to me. It makes me excited to follow Jesus, and to be a part of the crazy, convoluted, and unpredictable story that He's still telling.

2009 has been long, and I guess I didn't really enjoy all of it. A lot of that's my fault -- I have a talent for finding the darkness in a picture and then focusing in on it. I can never seem to get my mind away from this idea of the inevitability of death. Which is fine, because everything will die; but it's shortsighted. Death doesn't have the final word. The final scene isn't a graveyard -- it's a kingdom. Focusing on death is shortsighted because I believe in Jesus, and Jesus promises resurrection. Death is just the prerequisite to that.

Death, and death, and death; but then redemption, rebirth, resurrection. God grant that I don't forget again!

So I'm hopeful. 2010 is going to be a good year, I can feel it. I'm moving in with some awesome dudes, and paying a lot less rent. I'm going to have more money. I'm going to accomplish stuff that matters. And I'm going to go on dates with pretty girls; because after all, I'm clever and kind of good-looking. And even if 2010 blows, it'll be alright, because the Almighty crowns me with steadfast love and mercy.

So, there you go. Bring on the new year. I'm not afraid. Er, maybe I am a little, but it'll be okay.

It'll be okay.