Minute Message January 1

Jan 1, 2015Tom Ellsworth

E. C. McKenzie wrote, “What the New year brings us will depend on what we bring to the New Year.” Hi I’m Tom Ellsworth from Sherwood Oaks Christian Church with a minute message.

Our family tradition on New Year’s Day is to take down our Christmas decorations and pack them away for another eleven months. Every year my response is the same; the house looks so empty without the tree, lights and cheerful decorations that I begin to wonder what it might be like if Christmas lasted all year long?” But if Christmas decorations filled our homes every day they wouldn’t be special. They would become as ordinary and humdrum as a well-worn chair in the corner.

Life is often like that – what we experience daily becomes ordinary and humdrum. There is one notable exception, however. The prophet Jeremiah wrote, The unfailing love of the Lord never ends!...his mercies begin afresh each day.”

There is nothing dull about God’s daily blessings. They are not like our ordinary household furnishings; they are like the bright lights and colors of Christmas. So bring a sense of anticipation to the New Year and God’s daily blessings will make it seem as though the joy of Christmas lasts all year long.