New Year’s Day is my favorite holiday. Not because of the fireworks or watching the ball drop in Times Square or even the black-eyed peas and turnip greens, but because of the sense of newness. I love the idea of a clean slate, of a whole year yet unopened, the possibilities of what triumphs may come. I start looking forward to it around Thanksgiving. This year my thoughts and emotions are swirling around three words: mystery, wonder, beauty.

MYSTERY

Who doesn’t love a good mystery? Some of the most popular TV shows and book series revolve around solving a mystery.  Rarely do people think of the Bible as a book of mystery but the word mystery is mentioned twenty-seven times in the New Testament.

Jesus told the disciples that it had been given to them to know the mysteries of the Kingdom of God.

Proverbs 25:2 “It is the glory of God to conceal a matter, but the glory of kings is to search out a matter” It’s important to know that God has not hidden things from us, but for us. Searching out the hidden things of the Kingdom is like going on a divine treasure hunt.

What treasure are you seeking?

Here is part of my prayer for 2017: Holy Spirit, grant me to know the mystery of love that is in the heart of the crucified Son, Jesus Christ.

WONDER

Over and over the lyrics of a song play through my head-

“May we never lose our wonder,

may we never lose our wonder.

Wide-eyed and mystified,

may we be just like a child

staring at the beauty of our King”

There is something just so pure, so holy, so child-like about wonder.

Wonder is that feeling of being filled with astonishment, admiration and marvel. The opposite of wonder is to be jaded, which is tired, worn-out and dull. 

I don’t know about you but often that’s the way I feel about life, tired and worn-out. I’ve been a Christian all my life and I’m guilty of letting the gospel become too familiar and lose the wonder of it. The wonder of how the God of the Universe would come and live inside me.

Holy Spirit, grant me to sit at the feet of Jesus and look upon Him with wonder and amazement.

BEAUTY

In Psalm 27, David says there is one thing he asks of the Lord – that he might dwell in the house of the Lord to behold His beauty.

David was not saying he wanted to go live in a church building. He was acknowledging that his chief desire was to be in God’s family and to know Him in all the beauty of His goodness.

There is much in this world that is ugly and sad and lonely. But we have been given an invitation to come away with Him and look upon His beauty.

Holy Spirit, grant me eyes to see and a heart transformed by the beauty of my King.

wendy