New Year’s Eve Midnight Vision


Each New Year’s Eve I spend time reflecting. I like to evaluate where I’ve been and where I hope to go. It was on my 21st New Year’s Eve when I realized that the upcoming New Year would bring far greater changes than ever before.

I would soon be in my final months of college. My whole life had been cocooned in school. Now I’d be on my own. Well, not exactly on my own. I had gotten married earlier in the year, so now I shared this uncertain future with the man I always wanted next to me.

On that New Year's Eve we climbed to the top of the Evergreen clock tower to contemplate our hopes. From that vantage, we could watch the huge hands shift minute by minute towards the twelve. Just ahead: more chances and choices. We gazed out into the darkness as we imagined how it all would happen.

Had we known what was out there would we have changed our minds or direction? We couldn’t see the disrupted dreams or the prayers that weren’t to be granted. We didn’t see the broken budgets or darkly veiled valleys. We simply held hands, gazed at the stars and the familiar sites on the campus below.

As the clock hands stood at attention, New Year’s Day arrived with such darkness we could hardly see. It was just like our unsettled future. So much life yet to live. And enthusiastically, we believed everything would work just like we planned. We excitedly ran down the dozens of steps and began to tackle the future we had in the palm of our hand.

I can now smile about those plans: the music career as recording stars. Reality was filled with roadblocks and detours. Then one New Year’s Eve years later we decided our future shouldn't be in our hands, but in His. God offered to guide us if we’d let Him. He would shine a light on our path. We might stumble, but He’d catch us.

Now my New Year’s celebrations come packaged with more wisdom & patience. I’ll always treasure that 1979 New Year’s Eve on top of the clock tower—when all we could see were the hopes of what was to come. Now we know that all our hopes need to be in Him who made a plan just for us. And here’s the best news of the New Year: If we follow the light on God’s path, those plans work out best.

"You always show me the path that leads to life." Psalm 16:11

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