It's New Year's Day and the old is past.  The new sparkling year dances before us and we are filled with HOPE that 2012 will heap upon us the blessings of joy and health and happiness.  

As I took a walk with Asher today around our neighborhood I saw a man up on the hill above our home taking down his Christmas lights.  He had crafted an enormous cross on the side of the hill with the word HOPE written in Christmas Lights above it.  It was beautiful.  I cupped my hands to my mouth and shouted up to him, "Thank you!"  He called back, "You're welcome!"

We need HOPE in the New Year don't we?  I think we need HOPE even more than we need "HAPPY".  

My family went to the most fabulous New Year's Eve Party this year.  All of the families from our Sunday school class at church gather each year for a kid-friendly celebration.  There is music and pizza, a huge property for the children to run around, a trampoline, plenty of sweet treats, and then at 9PM we gather together to watch the ball drop in Time Square with 30+ kiddos blowing horns and rattling noise makers.  What fun!  

This year one of our family's was there with a heavier burden than most of us will ever bare.  At the beginning of December this mother of 4 was diagnosed with Breast Cancer.  They decided to wait until just after Christmas for her surgery.  On the 28th she went in for her Pre-Op of blood work and paper signing and received news that she is pregnant.  More meetings with Doctors followed and the new plan is to perform surgery in a couple of weeks, followed by radiation, but they will save Chemo until after that baby is born.  

As they walked into the home of our host on New Year's Eve I welcomed them with hugs and the words "Happy New Year" slipped out before I thought through my message.  The wife responded sheepishly, "Yeah, Happy New Year."  And the husband raised his arms and exclaimed "Happy Friggin' New Year."  We all laughed awkwardly together and hugged.

And while I longed to whisper in her ear wishes for happiness and health in the New Year, the words of my Pastor rang in my head.

 God isn't so concerned about changing our circumstances,

as He is changing us.

Let us not wish one another Happiness in place of Hope, or safety rather than change in our hearts and beings.  Let us Hold to Him and the Hope of being changed into His likeness in this New Year.  It may involved pain and suffering... it often does.  It may include heartache and surrender, as we let Him mold us into His image with His heart.  And let us put our trust in eternity rather than our Happiness here and now.

For those of you who have lost loved ones, lost jobs, lost health, lost Hope in the past year, I pray you God's nearness and strength, His support and goodness and favor. But if the circumstances don't radically and miraculously improve in the coming months, let your heart rest in the One who loves us and gave His Son for us, that we might have Hope in the life promised us beyond this one... where there are no more tears, no more sadness, no more illness... only Joy in His Presence.

 Yes, let us spur one another on toward this Great Hope in the New Year. Happy Hope of Eternity in the New Year!  (insert noise makers here)

Happy Happy we can be, that there is purpose in the pain, as we yield our lives to Him in the midst of it all.