The same new year

I try to avoid looking forward or backward, and try to keep looking upward.

Charlotte Bronte

“Happy New Year!” said Chuck.

“Yeah, whatever,” I replied.

Ok, I was going for the comical effect (mostly).

The new day, the new year, the opening of a whole new calendar.  It didn’t look much different from the day before, the day I had seen the above quote about looking upward.

The day before, on December 31st, I had also finished writing out the whole chapter of Isaiah 40. My pastor had read the first verse on November 27th, the first day of Advent. Later that day, I thought, “Maybe in 2023, it’s time to memorize the whole chapter.”

See, I love the book of Isaiah. I have even memorized several verses from that chapter in particular. My favorite is verse 26:

Look up and see:

who created these?

Chapter 40 actually has 31 verses total, perfect, I realized, for writing one every day of December. I would then read one a day each month for the coming year as a memory technique.

But somewhere in the tween or teen verses, I started having second thoughts. Maybe I should just lump those together and memorize the beginning and end. Or maybe I’m not actually supposed to memorize more than I already know – maybe writing the verses throughout December was all I was supposed to do.

So, I finished writing verse 31 on December 31st and closed the journal, not sure if I was done with Isaiah 40 or not.

Then on the new day, the new year, a day that didn’t look any different from the day before, I decided to listen to a meditation from Insight Timer for the first time in probably two weeks.

I scrolled through the main screen and came across one called, “Trusting Through the Strength of Our Creator.” Trusting seemed like a good theme to start the new year with – and it was only six minutes long. Perfect.

A gentle voice began speaking,

Every valley shall be raised up,
Every mountain and hill made low;
The rough ground shall become level,
The rugged places a plain.

You know what that is? That’s Isaiah 40! She proceeded to recite other verses from the chapter (skipping most of the teens as well, thank you very much) including my favorite:

Lift up your eyes and look to the heavens:
    Who created all these? (NIV)

Hhmmm, maybe I’m not done with Isaiah 40.

We didn’t make it to church on Sunday, New Year’s Day, and for some reason didn’t even watch it online…until Monday morning. At which point, a different pastor talked about his love of the stars and his amazement at a Hubble telescope photo of nearly 10,000 galaxies.

Not one galaxy. Not thousands of stars and planets in a galaxy. 10,000 galaxies!

Then he said, “Looking up through the eyepiece of my own telescope…”

And there it was for a third day in a row: look up.

The new day, the new year, the opening of a whole new calendar.  It’s not meant to look different. I’m meant to do the same thing yesterday, today, tomorrow, every day of every year: LOOK UP!

Don’t look back with regret. Don’t look forward with defeat and anxiety. Keep looking up at the amazing power that somehow keeps thousands of galaxies spinning all at the same time and yet still manages to walk right next to me every new day of every new year.

Look up and see:
who created these?
He brings out the starry host by number;
He calls all of them by name.

Isaiah 40:26 (HCSB)