A new year is often accompanied by personal reflection. How have I changed in the last year? What about the last twelve months has contributed to my situation right now? Where am I going? Questions like these, spoken or not, undoubtedly weave through many people's minds as calendars change and innumerable things begin yet again. The resulting answers are as varied as the people asking the questions. Some see themselves as an entirely different person than the one they were 365 days earlier while others less dramatically notice the slow but sure effects of age and life brought on by another year.
For some, whether they know it or not, the past year was the best they will ever have, filled with success and satisfaction never again to be matched. For others the past year was overwhelmed by dark times and great tragedy. And for the multitude somewhere in between, the past year was just another completely unpredictable stretch of living with highs and lows and joy and pain and everything else we experience as humans. Each person’s year long story is as different as their fingerprints and yet, unlike the marks from our fingertips, can change tremendously from each year to the next. Whether it is a "roller coaster" or some far more unique metaphor you might use to describe the passing years, any image assuredly tries to capture the drama, change, unexpectedness, and sheer fast pace of human life. Last year, like pretty much all the years before that, was crazy.
God’s past year, as we might see it, was far less exciting. He experienced no surprises, did not fail in any way, did not in any sense have "a bad year," and remains exactly and perfectly the same God He was a full year ago. As Christians, God's change-less nature is a cause for praise! So many of our human ups and downs correspond to our failures, struggles, and imperfection–simply put, sin. Very often we Christians expand our New Year’s reflections to include our spiritual growth, a pursuit marred by our faithlessness and resulting in yearly resolutions to tackle new or ongoing areas of our lives that need work. Yet even as our faithfulness to God fails and our mercy to other people reaches its limit–things that surely make for troubling, "exciting" times in life–God's faithfulness to us has not faltered. Among many I talk to, no matter how different or trying the events of the past year have been, the one constant is God's redemption of situation after situation.
Psalm 136 famously begins with a declaration of this truth: "Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good. His love endures forever." After each line declaring a truth about God, the refrain "His love endures forever" returns verse after verse after verse, illustrating even within the poetry that God's love is ever present and does not end.
Likewise "the steadfast love of the Lord never ceases, his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is thy faithfulness" (Lam 3.22). The Bible contains so much about the consistency and constancy of God. In any new, tough, or changing season, it seems wise for His followers to seek out and dwell on God's promises of love that does not change and mercy that does not end. It is a stark contrast to the inconsistent and infidelity-ridden way in which we imperfectly love Him. While our failings make for action packed and drama filled years to reflect on, it is God's tranquil and ceaseless love that is truly exciting. How wonderful that Christ first loved us!
