The Passing of Each Year

 

The sunsets at the end of December always make me think of the passing of the year. Slowly the year has moved through our lives, and our lives through the year. Sometimes the movement is imperceptible, then suddenly we discover that it is dusk and the months and weeks and days and hours and minutes and seconds have slipped through our fingers. Soon the sun, and the year, are gone.

I always liked the poetry of the old hymn, “Day is Dying in the West”. Like many others, It is no longer often sung. But the words speak beautifully of the transitions that fill life.

Day is dying in the west,

Heav’n is touching earth with rest;

Wait and worship while the night

Sets her evening lamps alight

Thru all the sky

When forever from our sight

Pass the stars, the day, the night,

Lord of angels, on our eyes

Let eternal morning rise,

And shadows end.

The end of each day, and the passing of each year, take place within the circle of God’s love and grace. Through all the beauty and all the pain, through all the sunshine and all the shadow, through all the days of confident faith and all the days of unanswerable questions, God is our constant companion. Though at times unseen and unheard, God’s presence is as steady as the rising and setting of the sun and as certain as the passing of our years. Even the worst of days hold grace. Even the hardest of years hold promise. And all these days hold out the hope that we will each know a moment when shadows cease and it will be morning.

Peace.