How can we best receive New Year's blessed gift?
By Bishop Woodie W. White
Sometimes we have a sense of entitlement about life, assuming that it is due us. Life is approached with such natural expectation that we think it is ours, no questions asked. A taking for granted.
Sadly for so many, there is little or no consideration of life as a gift. The days, months and years pass with no evidence of gratitude, even wonder.
Now we approach a new year. A passing of the old and the beginning of the new. It could be received with only scant recognition. Simply the changing of the calendar.
Of course it is much more. I remember as a child receiving an introduction to the passing of the old year and the welcoming of the new. I observed that it was filled with drama and some mystery. It was clear that what was taking place was special indeed. It was a New Year.
Again we are introduced to a new Year. What does it actually mean? Many things to different people, obviously. And to you?
In part, a new year is a demarcation of time. A certain portion -- days, months -- is calculated and set aside as a period called 2006. Once established, its time of beginning and ending can't be altered.
One will not be able to say, for instance, that because a day didn't go as planned, another will be added. Only one April 4, 2006, is given. Indeed, unless one crosses time zones (another issue), you get only one April 4.
The time demarcation means 2005 is finished. It cannot be lived again. There is not the possibility to go back into that space to correct or change what was done. However much one desires to do so, it is over. Over! That time has been given and used, never to be recaptured.
Watch Night service, a Wesleyan tradition, is still observed by many congregations though modified by region and cultural practice. It is a time of looking back with thanksgiving and committing oneself to a godly life in the new year.
I grew up attending Watch Night services and continue to do so to this day. It is so important to what it means to live and embrace life and faith -- one of the rituals of my boyhood carried into adulthood.
I remember those nights of long ago. It was expected that the community would gather in church in the final hours of the old year. There would be testimony, singing, prayers offered. The time was actually counted down as the service progressed. The congregation would be reminded that it was 11:00, 11:25. . . .
As midnight approached all were invited to come to the altar. By then, worshippers were still rushing in through the doors; it was important to be in the church as the old year passed and the new year began.
It was a time to express gratitude for survival. Yes, merely to survive. Whatever terrible forces had followed one throughout the year, you had survived. Shouts of "Thank you, Jesus!" could be heard all around.
Thank you, Jesus. A new year meant a new start, and we were blessed to be given the opportunity to begin again.
Then, there were the aromas of New Year's Day. A traditional table of familiar foods -- black-eyed peas, collard green, "chittlins" (if you don't know what they are, don't ask), ribs and so much more. A new year was marked by festivity and celebration. And gratitude, always gratitude. And hope.
These are memories and meanings of the New Year. You have your own.
So another year is given. Some will approach it with relief. 2005 brought too much pain, too much grief. To be sure, some will greet the start of 2006 with anxiety, as delayed scheduled surgery will take place. Then there are those who will welcome it with joyful expectation. So much is planned: the wedding, graduation, baptism, a new and exciting pastoral appointment. Still others will embrace it with simple wonderment.
So 2006 has come. How will you receive it?
Copyright 2005 United Methodist Reporter. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Retired United Methodist Bishop Woodie W. White currently serves as bishop-in-resident at Candler School of Theology in Atlanta, Ga.