Perceptions #200147

"A NEW YEAR"

by Dan Anders

(adapted from an article written more than twenty years ago by the late Dan Anders)

Lord, thou has been our dwelling place
in all generations . . .from everlasting
to everlasting thou art God."
Psalm 90:1,2 RSV

The turning of each year brings its tide of reflection and resolution. So the end of one year, the birth of another almost swamps us with news analysis, media replays and tenuous projections. Blueprints for 2002 are not for sale, but certain revealed truths are eternally clear.

Time is short. Maybe not for the world or for the human family, but for each of us as human souls. At its longest we have the proverbial threescore years and ten or fourscore (Ps. 90:10). By any human measurement that isn't long. Compared with the sweep of history, anyone's lifespan is as short as a dream, as fleeting as grass that withers in a single day (90:5).

Life is often hard. Not always, thank God! Still all too often. At their best our years bring us plenty of "toil and trouble" (90:10). Who could have foreseen the events of September 11 on January 1, 2001? Who can foretell what heavy burdens 2002 may impose? There is enough goodness in living to defuse H. G. Wells' slur that "life is brutish, short, and nasty," but there is some harsh truth in it too.

Life is transitory. Nothing human remains. We ourselves are turned back to dust (90:3); we are swept away (90:5); we are consumed (90:7); we pass away (90:9). Our small scratch in history's page is soon forgotten, and "we fly away" (90:10).

Grim words to start a year? Aye, but true. And solemn enough, perhaps, to drive us back to life's only unshifting reality, the eternal God. Only his favor can secure us. Only his blessings can unfailingly establish the work of our faltering hands.

top of page    previous article    Perceptions Index