Till We Are Home

Not only does the new year allow us to reflect back on what the Lord did in our life that year, but the new year also allows us to look ahead to what possibly may be in the coming year. At the new year, we have an opportunity to reflect on and enjoy what God has done. And, at the new year, we also can look ahead and dream what He may do in the coming year, if He wills.

I think some of us (if not all of us) love to think or dream about all that may be possible over the next 365 days. It’s a new start, a new year…the possibilities are wide open. 

But, the new year can also bring difficulty for some. I remember struggling two years ago that we entered a new year my Izzy would never know. The calendar page turned with brand new months in a brand new year, but I did not find any of Izzy’s gymnastics practices, any trips with her, any hangouts with her friends on those calendar pages. Those calendar pages emptied of the resonance of Izzy’s life was a reality too hard to fathom. 

However the new year hits you, the Lord provides His children something to help ground us in true hope – the coming resurrection. Just like the cross provides us evidence of His love and power and grace and mercy to reflect back upon, the resurrection gives us real hope to look forward to. One of my favorite passages in Scripture these days comes from 1 Corinthians 15. As we look ahead to this new year, may we remember what Paul says in 1 Cor 15:50-52, 

I tell you this, brothers: flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable. Behold! I tell you a mystery. We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we shall be changed.

At that last trumpet, the resurrection comes. Even death does not have the final say. In the end, when the Lord returns for His people, the dead will rise from the grave and those who remain on earth will meet them and our Christ in the air (1 Thess 4:16-17). We will put on the imperishable and find our eternal home with Him. According to our just God, He will right all the wrongs. No longer will we, “see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known” (1 Cor 13:12).

You see, if the Lord wills, then we will do this or that in 2025 (Js 4:15). There may be some good things you are anticipating this year: a new marriage, a baby yet to be born, a new job, or a big move across the country. These wonderful joys that, Lord willing, may come point you further to the greater joy of being with Him for all your days. 

The greater joy at the wedding feast of the Lamb

The greater joy of the new life eternal born that resurrection day.  

The greater joy in the work we will find in the new Eden

And, the greater joy when we see the place He prepared for us in that far country. 

But, if your heart is like mine, not only looking forward to what may be but also harboring sorrows for what you wished could have been but now never will be, we can look to the resurrection for it brings us true hope. Not the “hope” that comes with earthly circumstances, but true, real, and lasting hope. For on that day He will redeem all that was lost. 

He will fill that loss with Himself so fully, so much so we’ll say with Paul that this was just a light and momentary affliction (2 Cor 4:17) compared to the infinite joy of being with our Lord finally and for all eternity.

May we look ahead to our 2025 with great hope. Not for what may come our way, but with the true hope found in the resurrection paid for dearly by our precious savior on the cross. In the resurrection to come we find the fulfillment of all joy that our joys today point to. In the resurrection to come we find the hope to carry us through our sorrows for our tears are put in His bottle (Ps 56:8) – they are that precious to Him – and He will wipe away our final tears (Rev 21:4). 

May we cling to our hope in the resurrection as we look ahead to this new year…

Till we are home…