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Stepping into 2024

             “Do not let your hearts be troubled. You believe in God; believe also in me. My Father’s house has many rooms; if that were not so, would I have told you that I am going there to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am.” (John 14:1-3)

 

            There’s a post being shared over the past few days about hoping that 2024 is as wonderful as 2023 was terrible. It’s a natural but unrealistic hope. That’s not a prediction that 2024 will be terrible. It’s a prediction that if, toward the end of 2024, things aren’t marvelous, wonderful, and better than could be imagined that it could be, we’ll finish 2024 saying that it was a miserable year and hope that 2025 will be better. For me, 2023 was a hard but good year. I can hope that 2024 will be even better, but I can’t justifiably whine about 2023 now that I’m not in the middle of a crisis.

            But as we approach the imaginary line between 2023 and 2024 that actually changes nothing about our lives except our attitudes (for better or for worse), today’s passage seems a good one. Most of the time, we think about God’s house and Jesus going to prepare a place for us as referring to Heaven, and it does. But the Kingdom of God isn’t as small as Heaven in the future. It includes the past, the present, the universe, and even Hell.

            While we think of the future as something we can’t touch except through our actions in the past and present, God has a plan for our futures. I believe that His omnipotence and omnipresence mean that He can be at work in the future, preparing things for us so that when we arrive, they are ready just as we worked in the past preparing things so that when we arrive, we are ready.

            This means we needn’t close our eyes tightly and step into the mythical new year with trepidation. God is already there, and He has our rooms ready. Room 2024 may not be what we consider heavenly if we think of heavenly as being the luxury we want. But if “heavenly” means the place where God is, then even a dirty old manger can be heavenly. Isn’t that what we’ve just celebrated? So, if it is what God has chosen to us for now, shouldn’t we not let our hearts be troubled?

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