A New Year...

What do birthdays, funerals, weddings, anniversaries, Communion, Easter, Christmas, and New Years all have in common?

{Celebration & Remembrance}

On every birthday, we're remembering, in some way, the coming of that person into the world, and celebrating their life. At funerals, we may be mourning, but we are remembering the person who has died and celebrating the life they lived. At weddings and anniversaries we celebrate love and relationship. Communion, or the Lord's Supper, was instituted by Christ, and he said to drink the cup and eat the bread together in remembrance of Him. Paul explained the ritual this way: "For whenever you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes" (1 Corinthians 11:26). It's a continual reminder of the New Covenant - freedom, hope, and grace in Jesus. At Easter we remember Christ's death, and Christmas is a time to celebrate His coming into the world as a human baby. And New Years...

New Years is a big deal in Germany, I discovered! When we got home at 2:00 in the morning on Saturday night there were still people with their children out on the streets, lighting fireworks and visiting. It's crazy how one event can unite a village! We got together with some friends and ended up walking to a bridge nearby, where we stood in the pitch black and pouring rain, watching colorful fireworks flying up from the surrounding villages in all directions. Kind of a cool sight, I have to say!

And as I lay falling asleep, I wondered, "what is the point of all this?" Good food, good drinks, good company...all for what? And I realized that New Years, also, comes back down to celebration and remembrance. Not everybody had a good year in 2011, but it's still a celebration - either of the good things that happened, or celebrating that it's over. It's remembering what we journeyed through in the past year and celebrating what's coming in the new year.

Celebration and remembrance is very biblical, and I think it's an important discipline that we, as Christ's followers, need to cultivate. Isaiah 46:9-11 says,

"Remember the former things, those of long ago;
   I am God, and there is no other;
   I am God, and there is none like me.
I make known the end from the beginning,
   from ancient times, what is still to come.
I say: My purpose will stand,
   and I will do all that I please....
What I have said, that will I bring about;
   what I have planned, that will I do."

What a promise! God's purposes remain the same, no matter what happens. He will be faithful to finish what He has started in each of our lives. This chapter also says, in verses 3-4, "Listen to me....you whom I have upheld since you were conceived, and have carried since your birth. Even to your old age and gray hairs I am he, I am he who will sustain you. I have made you and I will carry you; I will sustain you and I will rescue you."

Faith means remembering who God is and taking Him at His word - choosing to believe that He will do what He says He will do. His purposes will stand and He will bring about what He has planned. And it is in remembering His faithfulness in the past that we are sustained in the present.

A couple weeks ago during a church service we were singing the song, "You are great...You do miracles so great..." I knew in my head that God is a Great God and capable of doing wonders, but the words from Habbakkuk 3:2 became my prayer: "Lord I have heard of your fame; I stand in awe of your deeds. Renew them in our day, in our time make them known..." My prayer is that God would reveal Himself in a new way this year as the MIGHTY God, able to "do more than we could ever ask or imagine," in my life, in the life of my family and my husband's family, in the ministries we're connected with, etc. And I felt Him answer me this way:

"If you want to see Me work, to stand in awe of My deeds once again, you need to learn how to worship. I inhabit the praises of My people. I come down as you lift Me up....when you give Me the glory I deserve, I prove Myself. And as you thank Me for the past, I will reveal new things to you. As you celebrate My works and remember Me, you will experience more."

Celebrating and remembering are acts of worship. They fix our eyes on Christ and open us up to the new things God wants to show us. Read through the Psalms and see how much of the songs and writings there are based on God's actions in the past toward His people Israel. He is the same yesterday, today and forever! 

So I compiled a list of some of my own celebrations and remembrances of 2011 - ways the Lord proved Himself faithful and mighty. Here it is:

• blessing us with good community and friendships
• leading us to Germany and confirming that this is His will
• providing for us over and over, specifically financially, and with free furniture for our new apartment
• bringing people into our lives to encourage us in our marriage at the right time when we needed it, and using us to encourage other couples at the right time as well
• continually patiently teaching and refining me
• stirring up my gifts and passions

This is the Great God I serve. Acknowledging everything He's done over the last year gives me great anticipation for 2012. That's a bit of my list of celebration and remembrance...what's yours?