Into the Hand of God

A couple of weeks ago, I wrote about taking it easy during the month of January in order to renew our minds, bodies, and souls for the coming year (“The January Yuck“). It’s still January, and while I continue to “rest in the Lord” in my recliner in front of the TV watching the Food Network, allow me to share a couple of potentially transformative quotations for our mutual edification.

Nigerian pastor TemitOpe Ibraham (a female, in case you were wondering), advises us to “Treat every day like it’s a new year because it is.” Great advice, even if the words suspiciously remind me of the overused adage, “Today is the first day of the rest of your life.” Insert eye roll here. But the sentiment is probably sincere.

In the same vein, one of my favorite philosophers, Ralph Waldo Emerson said, “Write it on your heart that every day is the best day in the year.” While I’m not sure that I am in 100% agreement with Ralph, I can appreciate his optimism. If we can genuinely approach every single day with the attitude that it will be better than yesterday, even if yesterday was absolutely glorious, maybe those winter blues can be held at bay.

More practical advice is offered by Food Network chef Alexandra Guarnaschelli: “Winter blues are cured every time with a potato gratin paired with a roast chicken.” Alex G speaks to my heart—I can even smell the baking poultry.

Now, let’s get a little serious. I read a devotional at the end of 2021 that continues to rattle around in my head. In “Strong Into the Night,” the author shares the following story:

“In September 1939, Great Britain allied with France and several other alarmed countries in declaring war on Hitler’s Germany, which had invaded Poland in its intended march toward global domination. By the end of the year, anxieties throughout England remained on high alert; everyone was fearful of bombing and invasion.

When King George VI sat down before two large microphones to make his Christmas Day speech to the nation, he was dressed in his official uniform as Admiral of the Fleet. With so many parts of the world facing an uncertain future, his goal was to reassure the people that their nation was prepared and able and their cause right and just.

‘A new year is at hand,’ the king said. ‘We cannot tell what it will bring. If it brings peace, how thankful we shall all be. If it brings us continued struggle, we shall remain undaunted.’

Then the king concluded his speech with these words from Minnie Louise Haskins’ poem, “God Knows,” popularly titled “The Gate of the Year.””

                              The Gate of the Year

And I said to the man who stood at the gate of the year:
‘Give me a light that I may tread safely into the unknown.’
And he replied: 
‘Go out into the darkness and put your hand into the Hand of God.
That shall be to you better than light and safer than a known way.’ 

The fears of our nation today are not so different from those of England in 1939, and King George’s words still ring true. We don’t know what the year will bring. Maybe it will be peace, and maybe it will be continued struggle, but in either case, as we stand at the gate of the year, we can remain undaunted if, even in the darkness, we put our hands into the hand of God.

“He who trusts in the LORD will be exalted.” (Proverbs 29:25)