On the Eve

The journey from conception to the day which will mark 78 years is almost here.  Another sunrise will bring it into view.  It feels like standing on a threshold which speaks of ending and beginning.  What is past will end and what is unfolding will begin.  Of course, another way of looking at the moment is to see that what began is continuing.  Life is not so much about arriving as it is about moving toward what is unfolding.  On a day that is the eve of tomorrow, it is obvious that there is much to remember and much for which to hope.

A hymn which comes to mind has the words, "There's a song in every silence, seeking word and melody; there's a dawn in every darkness, bringing hope to you and me.  From the past will come the future, what it holds a mystery, unrevealed until its season, something God alone can see." ("Hymn of Promise").  The passing of so many years has driven home the truth that control is an illusion.  No matter how hard we might squint and strain to see into the future, we can at best see no further than the end of our nose.  

Life is truly about endings and beginnings and as the poet, Robert Browning, wrote long ago, "the best is yet to be."  It has always been that there is light after darkness, hope after despair, and joy after mourning.  The lesson of the years is that no darkness is overcoming because as Job, the man of trouble, said, "In His (God's) hand is the life of every living thing and the breath of every human being." (Job 12:10).  With such truth embedded in our heart we can move forward into any darkness which might unfold because we know God as the One who has brought us through all the things of ages that are past.