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find forgiveness from sin and belonging with God, truly the greatest gift.

What then of January? The Bible doesn’t have anything much to say
about this, not least because Christ probably wasn’t born in December!
st
Of course, in the secular world we invest January 1 with a great deal of
significance as a time of new beginnings. As Christianity developed, the
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idea of January 1 as His naming day and circumcision (bris) took on a
good deal of significance, suggesting both His Jewish identity and His
fleshly vulnerable humanity.

We too can look on the beginning of January as a time of new
beginnings, not in the worldly secular sense of resolutions but as an
opportunity to reset our relationship with God, by confessing our sins
under the assurance that honest and whole-hearted repentance leads to
life and peace (2 Corinthians), and by turning once again to Christ, the
greatest gift ever given.

Taken together, December and January contain the possibility of new
beginnings for us all. I pray that you, and I, will seek and find such
beginnings in every area of our lives.
Paul

At the Gate of the Year
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.

Minnie Haskins

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