Turning Points
“For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven:”
As we look back we see events and choices which have been turning points in our lives. It is often easier to see the pattern of God's hand as we review our personal history than it is to see God at work from day to day.
We do not know what this year holds for us, and that is just as well. Some of the things in this passage are events over which we as individuals have very little control. Others concern attitudes over which we can exercise some influence, weeping and laughing, mourning and dancing, loving and hating.
Entering a new year provides an opportunity to be on the lookout for the turning points of life. This is our chance to choose to build or to plant seeds of kindness, rather than to tear down and pluck up. Though we cannot change some events of life, we can change our attitude toward them.
The greatest truth we can grasp in a new year is the knowledge that no matter what twists and turns our lives may take, God is there with us. God's presence calms our fears and comforts our sorrows. God's love and mercy give us the strength to confront the dark places, and the faith to see a brighter tomorrow.
For Reflection: What have been the turning points of my life?
A Prayer Seed:
I don't know about tomorrow, it may bring me poverty;
But the one who feeds the sparrow, is the one who stands by me.
Many things about tomorrow I don't seem to understand;
But I know who holds tomorrow, and I know who holds my hand.
Ira F. Stamphill, 1914
