(Published 1/1/2021 in the Killeen Daily Herald)
A Renewed Hope for a New Year
Corona Virus; aka, COVID-19.
It dominates the news. It interrupts our conversations. It polarizes our population. It weakens our businesses, deflates our economy, and yes, it takes our health and even our lives. Its very threat cowers us in isolated homes which, even then, may not be sufficient to shelter us from the ravages of infection.
Never in our lifetimes have so many wanted to wish, “out with the old and in with the new” than on last night’s New Year’s Eve. And yet, there is a despair within many that this new year will be no better and may likely be only worse than 2020.
Sure, there is the vaccine. But a vaccine cannot undo the death of a deacon in our church, the loss of my wife’s best friend from childhood, or the sudden vacancy of a grandmother and grandfather in an east Texas family whom I formerly pastored. Or the deaths of 345,000 Americans and the soon to be 2 million in our world.
Despite all the optimism we can muster in our hearts, there is a grim reminder that there is a Grim Reaper.
One politician made a forecast for the next few months as a “dark winter”. Like the doomed occupants of a sunken submarine, many want to tap out a cryptic message to their crystal balls: “Is there any hope?”
If you haven’t noticed, the Bible has some truly dreary tales. Eden’s paradise barely lasted the first two chapters of Genesis. Moses inherited a murmuring bunch of naysayers after he (with God’s help) delivered them from 400 years of slavery. David, a man after God’s heart, bewailed that “All night I make my bed swim; I drench my couch with my tears.” There is even an entire book in the Bible called “Lamentations”. And while we celebrated that little Babe born in Bethlehem last week, I think we all know how that turned out.
Still, we are called “People of Faith.” The Christian’s bedrock foundation is built in and upon Hope.
The Bible tells tales of sorrow, but its tales do not leave us there in despondence. Jesus said, “In this world, you will have trouble, but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world.”
Hebrews 6:19 says this: “We who have fled for refuge have a strong encouragement to hold fast to the hope set before us. We have this as a sure and steadfast anchor of the soul, a hope that enters the inner place behind the curtain, where Jesus has gone as a forerunner on our behalf.”
This upcoming year, 2021, is behind a “curtain” of uncertainty. As our hope for a better year enters behind that veil of the unknown, we have a “sure and steadfast anchor” in our souls that Jesus has already traveled into the future, as a “forerunner on our behalf.”
You see, our refuge is not in a vaccine, nor in a president, nor in a cheery, optimistic hopeful promise of a prosperous New Year. Our weary world can rejoice because the One who holds the future has gone before us on our behalf.
His nail-scarred hands are not nervously wringing together in uncertainty. They beckon us to come unafraid because He knows that nothing will happen that we, together with Him, cannot handle.
His soothing voice announces in Isaiah 46:10, “I am God, and there is none like Me, declaring the end from the beginning. From the ancient times to things not yet done, I proclaim, ‘My counsel shall stand, and I will accomplish all my purpose.’ ”
His assurance of hope comes from eyes which see into the future where we cannot peer. “The eyes of the LORD your God are always upon it, from the beginning of the year to the end of the year,” (Deuteronomy 11:12).
As wonderful as His all-seeing eyes may be, and regardless of comforting words of the Scriptures, and even as matchless as His experienced hands may show the wounds of His saving love for me, there is a phrase that gives me even a greater hope and faith in the future.
“God is too wise to be wrong, too good to be bad. When you cannot trace God’s hand, trust His heart.”
Wishing you a happy, and hopeful, New Year.
Timothy McKeown is Associate Pastor at First Baptist Church of Killeen, where he has served since 2010.
