New Years Day 2014

Matthew 1:18-25

          Everyone loves a new birth. A baby is so new, filled with hope and innocence.  A baby speaks of new beginnings. A friend recently used spoke in terms of a 'reset button'  which is what Christmas is and in a secular way, so is New Years. 

           This past April, my husband and I flew to Florida for the funeral of our sister-in-law. When the plane landed and I turned on my phone, there was text from my son-in-law saying we had just become grandfathers. At some point during our flight there seemed to be a cosmic passing. In my mind, we were saying goodbye to Alma and saying hello to a new life, Tyler.  A cosmic reset?

          New years day is judged as a large communal reset day. We say goodbye to the old and embrace the new filled with hope and possibilities. This is the gist of the entire season. We are embracing God and the newness that brings to our life. We embrace our humanity and the splendor and love that can bring into our life. On New years we are filled with hope and the newness that brings. Filled with resolution and hope we move forward to make perhaps a disappointing year into a new and joyful year. We perhaps try to make a better year into a new and even better yet year. We reflect on our lives and ourselves in every way and try to change what we can on a personal level as well as a for the world.

             Whatever time you may have spent thinking about 2013 or the state of your own person affairs, make it count. Use the power of love, God, and hope that are so intimately intertwined, and make positive changes in your life and our world.

        A better you makes a better world for everyone. Now, off to start the year with spin class! Wooo-hooo! 

Now the birth of Jesus the Messiah took place in this way. When his mother Mary had been engaged to Joseph, but before they lived together, she was found to be with child from the Holy Spirit. Her husband Joseph, being a righteous man and unwilling to expose her to public disgrace, planned to dismiss her quietly. But just when he had resolved to do this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, ‘Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife, for the child conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will bear a son, and you are to name him Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.’ All this took place to fulfil what had been spoken by the Lord through the prophet:
‘Look, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son,
   and they shall name him Emmanuel’,
which means, ‘God is with us.’ When Joseph awoke from sleep, he did as the angel of the Lord commanded him; he took her as his wife, but had no marital relations with her until she had borne a son; and he named him Jesus.