Will the New Year be a happy? Of course not. A year cannot be happy; only people can be happy. Are you looking forward to something; will the flip of the calendar give you hope? Or are you more of a realist, looking forward to more of the same, or worse?

Some folks are always hopeful that things will improve in the future, while others are firm in their expectation that things can only get worse. In truth, most of us alternate between the two attitudes.

I read a remarkable thought this morning before prayer time, and it gave me a new perspective about the underlying problem.

The difference between despair and hope is found in our recognition that we have a longing that can’t possibly be met by that which is attainable in this present world.

Rev. Aaron L. Garriott, Tabletalk December 2022

Inside each of us is a soul deep desire for something better; something more. We strive and struggle, dream and wish, sacrifice and fight, only to find that it’s not enough. When we achieve a goal, we realize there has to be something more. Success becomes failure because it doesn’t deliver on the promise.

So what then? Give up? Live only for the moment? No, there’s a better way. Read the quote above again. The answer lies in the location of our hope. In this present world we’ll never find what we’re looking for. But in the the world to come, the New Creation, where heaven and earth are one, the perfection we seek will finally be ours if we have faith in Christ, the King of all creation, through whom all things were made, and by whom our salvation is made certain.

So, rather than wishing you happiness in the calendar year that’s about to begin, I’m wishing you a Happy New Life, a life of real hope and security that can only be found in Christ Jesus.