by Christine Sine
Each year at this time I write myself a new prayer for the new year. Yesterday I read through my prayer for 2018 Let newness emerge and realized that the prayer I have written for this year carries many of the same sentiments. In last year’s prayer (which I still think is one of the best I have written) I said “Let us give fresh expression to your eternal world.” It is a prayer I offer every year, with the hope and expectation that the year that is emerging will bring with it new expressions of God’s eternal world of love and peace and justice.
This year’s prayer expresses some of the same sentiments because I know that I need to repeat these words until they are so ingrained in my being that all I am and all I do is focused on seeing them come into being. God IS in the business of making all things new. I know it in my bones. That is what Christmas is all about and I will not lose hope.
So enjoy and ring in the new year with hope and anticipation of God’s newness.
The Promise of Newness Beckons
The promise of newness beckons
like freshness after the rain.
Let it rise from the ashes of the past,
Hope where none seems possible,
Peace where violence reigns,
Love where hate now flourishes.
Light will pierce the darkness.
There will be welcome for strangers.
The hungry will be filled.
The oppressed will be set free.
God’s power for life
Proclaimed in Bethlehem so many years ago
Now shines in us.
Let us grow towards the light that is Christ
Until the world is filled with truth and justice and love.
(c) Christine Sine