Minister’s February Message
Dear Friends,
The bible reading we read in church on New Year’s Day was the story of Simeon and Anna from Luke’s gospel. The example of Simeon and Anna urges us to keep trusting, confident that God is at work and that, in the fullness of time, his will shall be done. Simeon and Anna trusted in an outcome they would never see. They trusted Mary and Joseph to raise Jesus to be
caring and loving; they trusted the world to accept the truth of Jesus’ identity; they trusted God’s purposes in coming into this world as a human being and ultimately they trusted that future generations would carry this dream into the future.
Every New Year I can’t help thinking about the poem, written in 1908 which caught the public attention when King George VI quoted it in his 1939 Christmas broadcast. The first verse of the poem called ‘The Gate of the Year’ by Minnie Louise Haskins is the one most often quoted but the words of the whole poem offer not only a timely reminder for a New Year but also to those committed to a life of faith with God in Jesus Christ.
THE GATE OF THE YEAR – God Knows
And I said to the man who stood at the gate of the year:
“Give me a light that I may tread safely into the unknown.”
And he replied:
“Go out into the darkness and put your hand into the Hand of God.
That shall be to you better than light and safer than a known way.”
So I went forth, and finding the Hand of God, trod gladly into the night.
And He led me towards the hills and the breaking of day in the lone East.
So heart be still:
What need our little life
Our human life to know,
If God hath comprehension?
In all the dizzy strife
Of things both high and low,
God hideth His intention.
God knows. His will
Is best. The stretch of years
Which wind ahead, so dim
To our imperfect vision,
Are clear to God. Our fears
Are premature; In Him,
All time hath full provision.
Then rest: until
God moves to lift the veil
From our impatient eyes,
When, as the sweeter features
Of Life’s stern face we hail,
Fair beyond all surmise
God’s thought around His creatures
Our mind shall fill.
I hope that this year will be a year of great blessing for you, for our church and for our community, but whatever happens I hope we will all put our hands into the hands of the God, who came to live as one of us in Jesus Christ, and who encourages us all to face 2017 like Simeon and Anna, with love, hope and faith, trusting that future generations will carry our dreams into the future.
Yours,
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