We stand at the threshold of a new year. We cannot know what lies ahead. We have seen things recently that were so unexpected. Lives ravaged with sickness or devastated with the death of loved ones. We’ve felt the clutches of government on us like never before. The world’s economies stagger under the load of reckless spending. Our expectations that the shelves will always be full, our jobs will be secure, and our children will see a better world—all are disintegrating before us.
Chapman University regularly does an extensive survey of what Americans fear. Any guess what the Number 1 answer is? Corrupt government officials—over 62% of the respondents gave that answer.
Then follow many others: not having enough for the future or financial collapse, identity theft, government intrusion, biological or nuclear warfare, cyber-terrorism, illegal immigration, and widespread civil unrest. So how is it possible to “Fear not” in the coming year?
At the close of his 1939 Christmas broadcast, on the threshold of a world war, King George VI read from a poem by Minnie Louise Haskins, given to him by his 13-year-old daughter, Princess Elizabeth, who recently passed away:
“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 better than light, and safer than a known way.’”
Several years ago, I recorded a New Year’s video that included the following:
There’s a beautiful little story in a book by Mary Ann Bird called “The Whisper Test.” She said, “I grew up knowing I was different, and I hated it. I was born with a cleft palate and, when I started school, my classmates made it clear to me how I looked to others—a little girl with a misshapen lip, crooked nose, lopsided teeth, and garbled speech.
“There was, however, a teacher in the second grade that we all adored, Mrs Leonard by name. She was short, round, happy—a sparkling lady.
“Annually we had a hearing test. Mrs Leonard gave the test to everyone in the class, and finally it was my turn. I knew from past years that, as we stood against the door and covered one ear, the teacher sitting at her desk would whisper something and we would have to repeat it.
Things like ‘The sky is blue’ or ‘Do you have new shoes?’ I waited there for those words that God must have put in her mouth, those seven words that changed my life. Mrs Leonard said in her whisper, ‘I wish you were my little girl.’”
That’s the heart of God to all of us: “I wish you were Mine.” Even with our garbled thinking, our misshapen souls, our crooked motives, our lopsided selfishness, He longs for us to trust Him, to come to Him as-is. “We beseech you, in Christ’s stead, be reconciled to God” (2 Cor 5:20). In the poet’s words, you can step resolutely into the coming year if you “Put your hand into the Hand of God.” Or in the Bible’s own words: “I the Lord your God will hold your right hand, saying to you, Fear not; I will help you.” (Isa 41:13)
Article by Jabe Nicholson first published in the Commercial Dispatch, Sunday, January 1, 2023