Did you join our December read-along of Dicken's Christmas books?
It was the first time I read The Chimes by Charles Dickens, and I was surprised by how similar it was to A Christmas Carol.
The Chimes is a novella that examines the disillusionment of Toby "Trotty" Veck, a poor working-class messenger. Trotty has lost faith and hope and believes that the dire poverty he and his family are experiencing results from their unworthiness. The Chimes 'visit' him on New Year's Eve and help restore his trust, hope and belief in goodness. The following quote about the New Year has chased me for a few weeks.
'The New Year, like an Infant Heir to the whole world, was waited for, with welcomes, presents, and rejoicings. There were books and toys for the New Year, glittering trinkets for the New Year, dresses for the New Year, schemes of fortune for the New Year; new inventions to beguile it. Its life was parcelled out in almanacks and pocket-books; the coming of its moons, and stars, and tides, was known beforehand to the moment; all the workings of its seasons in their days and nights, were calculated...The New Year, the New Year. Everywhere the New Year! The Old Year was already looked upon as dead; and its effects were selling cheap, like some drowned mariner's aboardship. Its patterns were Last Year's, and going at a sacrifice, before its breath was gone. Its treasures were mere dirt, beside the riches of its unborn successor!'
The new year is sparkly and filled with many expectations, but I was also stepping into it this time with some trepidation. I realise that is because I didn't take the time to be grateful for all the goodness in 2023 ⼀ I looked back and only saw the hard stuff, and I was carrying a little of that trepidation into the new year.
Our family has a little tradition where we discuss our dreams and goals for the New Year¹, and this year, we spent extra time sharing what we were grateful for in the last year. It was good for my heart to pick up the treasures of lessons learned, gifts received for joys and sorrows. My husband's work was very taxing, but I am grateful he didn't have to travel so much. We lost our beloved house helper, but I am thankful for the family habits we are re-learning to keep the house clean (and the thousands of steps and the muscles built). Setting up AG was a massive step for me, and I am thankful for the incredible women in the AG team, for you and our growing community of families.
I learnt so much and grew in leaps and bounds!
Do you also have expectations and trepidation for the new year? I pray that we both can learn, like Trotty in The Chimes, to trust, hope and believe in God's goodness for the year ahead. The following poem by Minnie Louise Haskins is a beautiful reminder that even though we may not know what lies ahead, we can put our 'hand into the Hand of God' and let him lead us into the breaking of a new day.
THE GATE OF THE YEAR
'God Knows'
And 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 to you better than light and safer than a known way".
So I went forth, and finding the Hand of God, trod gladly into the night.
And He led me towards the hills and the breaking of day in the lone East.
So heart be still:
What need our little life
Our human life to know,
If God hath comprehension?
In all the dizzy strife
Of things both high and low,
God hideth His intention.
God knows. His will
Is best. The stretch of years
Which wind ahead, so dim
To our imperfect vision,
Are clear to God. Our fears
Are premature; In Him,
All time hath full provision.
Then rest: until
God moves to lift the veil
From our impatient eyes,
When, as the sweeter features
Of Life's stern face we hail,
Fair beyond all surmise
God's thought around His creatures
Our mind shall fill.
¹ I have used and adapted this resource from The Well Summit
24-7 Prayer also has a Praying Through Your Dreams for the Year resource.
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