Who We are

Some of you will remember the “Calvin and Hobbes” comic strip. In one strip, Calvin and Hobbes are talking about the New Year. Calvin says, “I’m getting disillusioned with these New Years. They don’t seem very new at all. Each New Year is just like the old year. Here another year has gone by and everything’s still the same. There’s still pollution and war and stupidity and greed. Things haven’t changed. I say what kind of future is this? I thought things were supposed to improve. I thought the future was supposed to be better.”

Hobbes replies with his usual keen insight, “The problem with the future is that it keeps turning into the present.”

I guess he’s right. The future does just keeps turning into more of the present.

Well, a new year is upon us with all of its challenges and possibilities. I think of a text from the prophet, Isaiah.  “Arise, shine; for your light has come, and the glory of the Lord has risen upon you.” 

Wow.  What  a powerful word of encouragement.  Having come through the Christmas season, we often focused on God coming near to each of us.

 

And yet some in Isaiah’s day, like us,  might be questioning or even doubting what God can do in our lives.

 

Let me offer some reasons why you and I can have the best year ever. 

In the first place, we know who we are. One of Isaiah’s primary tasks was to remind the people of God who they were. They were no ordinary run of the mill ragtag outfit. They were God’s own anointed. They were the chosen.

We need to be reminded, sometimes, who we are as well. We are God’s people. We are those for whom Christ died. We belong to the best family in town: God’s family. 

An unknown poet has written: 

I may be young; I may be old, 
But I am somebody, For I am God’s Child.
 
I may be educated; I may be unlettered,
But I am somebody, For I am God’s Child. 

I may be black; I may be white, 
But I am somebody, For I am God’s Child. 

I may be rich; I may be poor, 
But I am somebody, For I am God’s Child. 

I may be fat; I may be thin, 
But I am somebody, For I am God’s Child. 

I may be married; I may be divorced, 
But I am somebody, For I am God’s Child. 

I may be successful; I may be a failure,
But I am somebody, For I am God’s Child. 

I may be a sinner; I may be a saint, 
But I am somebody, For Jesus is my Savior. 

I am God’s Child! 

 

We can also take encouragement in knowing that God goes with us in 2018. Remember, He is Emmanual.

 

Isaiah understood that any glory that came to his people was not their own doing. Their hope was in God and God alone. So it is with us.

I think of the experience of Mrs. C.D. Martin who wrote a song that Ethel Waters made famous.

 

Mr. and Mrs. Martin were visiting the Doolittle’s of Elmira, New York. The Doolittle’s were both physically impaired.  Even though unable to get around, their souls were still strong. They radiated such joy that the Martins inquired about their positive joyous take on life.

 

Mrs. Doolittle responded with pride, “His eye is on the sparrow, and I know He watches me!” Mrs. Martin was so taken by the response that she went home and that same day arranged those touching words into a lovely Gospel hymn that Ethel Waters immortalized. “His eye is on the sparrow, and I know He watches me!”

I was reminded of that recently when Lana remembered a plaque hanging on her brother’s living room wall. It simply said: “Said the Robin to the Sparrow, ‘I should really like to know. Why these anxious human beings rush about and worry so?” 

 

Said the Sparrow to the Robin: “Friend, I think that it must be that they have no Heavenly Father, such as cares for you and me.”

 

As we go into this New Year, may the God who has come near, be above us, below us, beside us, in front of us and behind us always.