New Year
At the winding down of one year and the starting of another,
When we’ve had a chance to think and pray and talk with one another,
When the things we plan to do seem plain and duties are not pressing
There has seemed to be a chance that we may do some slight progressing.

But well we know that newness does not come with time’s mere passing;
And our hearts have business of their own untouched by clocks and planning.
They grind and bind when failures are their daily occupation
But soar and sing and serve and love when free of condemnation.

The word of Christ has made us clean. We are a new creation.
Old things have gone because they died in Christ’s great crucifixion.
The now is new because Christ stands at right hand of the Father
And his Spirit leads us in the way of truth and restoration.

To dream of other futures or to make another goal
Is like going back to Adam and to lose our very soul.
Our future is Christ Jesus, and the gospel of his making,
And the faith, the love, the hope and joy that now are everlasting.

© Grant Thorpe, New Year’s Eve, 2001

New Year (PDF)