As long as I can remember, the idea of celebrating the coming of the New Year has seemed a little odd to me. I mean, what is so special about that fact that one year has ended, and another is beginning? Did some major event happen on that day? Are we commemorating something great in our history? Does something change (besides the number we use for the year) when a new year begins?
As far as I know, I’m the same person I was yesterday, with the same failings, the same problems the same bills and the same life. I’ve gained little in knowledge and experience since yesterday; actually, if anything, all that’s happened is that my body has just gotten one day older. What’s so special about that?
Oh, I know that New Years is celebrated around the world, in many different cultures and religions, and that it has been for millennium. The date on the calendar might change from place to place, but it’s still a new year’s celebration. Still, that doesn’t make it seem any more special to me.
Some of the customs of the New Year’s celebration seem just as strange. The idea of staying up late, having a drunken party to bring in the new year is probably the strangest of all. I think it must stem from ancient times, when the people were afraid that the sun wouldn’t come back, or some such thing. Yet, as educated, technologically and scientifically aware people, we still bring in the year with all the drunken hoopla we can muster up. Are we afraid that the new year won’t actually come?
Or, here’s another strange one; how about the custom of setting off fireworks on New Year’s? Where did that come from? It almost seems like an offering to the sun god, so that it can keep its eternal fire burning to warm the earth and give us light. Actually, the idea of setting off fireworks reminds me an awful lot of the Aztec story of the sun god jumping into a bonfire, so that he could burn.
Here’s another custom that’s always puzzled me; the idea of making New Year’s resolutions. We all know that most people break those resolutions before the week is out, so why make them? Does making it a New Year’s resolution make us any more likely to complete it? It appears not, so why bother?
I’m not saying that we shouldn’t strive to change and better ourselves. The idea of making a resolution to change some fault in your life is a good idea; but, making it just because it’s another year doesn’t seem to make much sense.
Really, I’m not trying to be a Scrooge here, saying “Bah Humbug” to the New Year, or even to the New Year celebration; I’m really not. I just don’t get it. There was a saying that was popular a number of years ago, and maybe still is in some places. It went, “Today is the first day of the rest of your life.” I like that. We really don’t need to wait for the New Year to have a new beginning; each and every day brings us that opportunity. Life is full of new opportunities; all we need to do is grasp hold of them.
A little over 2,000 years ago, a baby was born in a little town called Bethlehem, in a place then known as Judea, and now known as Israel. That baby was a gift sent to all mankind, giving us an opportunity for a new beginning. He came, grew, became a man, taught, and ultimately died, for one purpose, the purpose of giving us the opportunity to come into relationship with God the Father, the Creator of the Universe. The opportunity to have hope; to have love; to have a new life.
Many people look at the gospel story and only see a mean God that is trying to send people to hell. What those people don’t understand is that God doesn’t send anyone to hell; all those who go there go of their own free will. No, God is actually trying to stop us from going to hell; that’s why He sent Jesus.
Yet, this same God loves us so much that He doesn’t try and impose His will on us and make us go into His presence. Oh, I know that many people think that He does, and quote the Ten Commandments as proof of that. But, those commandments aren’t given to restrict us, or impose God’s will upon us, they are given for our benefit, not for God’s benefit. He tries so hard to avoid imposing His will on us, that He has prepared a place for those who don’t want anything to do with Him; a place totally outside of His presence. This place is called hell; and actually, it was never intended as a place for mankind to go to.
This same God, the one who created you and I, the one who sent His Son to die for us, wants to have a relationship with you. What’s wrong with that? Why is that so hard to accept? Why not have a true new beginning this year, one with Him?
